Inside the Lines
by By Another Name
Summary: A tired, old-feeling man has all but given up on life. As the war ends, he finds himself challenged-and charmed-by a witch who's lost as much as he has.
1. The Gray Man

_The characters here and the world they inhabit are the creation and property of JK Rowling and her assigns._

He was known as "The Gray Man of the Ministry." It was easy to see why. His clothing had long since become a non-descript color and the shape drooped in a general slumpishness that gave the impression of gray even on days when it was a shade of brown or blue. Old timers would whisper of the days when he was young and vibrant, with a gorgeous wife, _even if she was a Muggle,_ they would whisper amongst themselves. Some knew him as a real fire-eater who spoke out of turn as like as not and seemed to be headed for a fall. The fall came, but did not hurt him. Instead it hurt his small son, and the color seemed to seep out as the next few years went until he seemed older than he was.

If he knew that he was called the Gray Man after that, he didn't acknowledge it. He had more than his share of concerns in the world, but he shouldered them fairly well. It worked fine for a couple of decades at least, but then another, sadder fall came upon him. The beautiful Muggle got sick and died. He stopped caring what became of himself, although his work never failed. He simply floated from one project to the next and didn't mind overtime or extra work. By this point, if someone said, "Let the Gray Man handle it," he raised his head over his cubicle, looked for the speaker, and put out his hand to receive the airplane that unfolded into a project folder on his desk. There were even days when he referred to himself as "The Gray Man."

The war with Voldemort didn't affect the Gray Man in the same sense that it affected his son, who wanted him to take a side. His son had a particular side he wished to everyone to take, and indeed it seemed the only reasonable side to take. Yet he couldn't summon the will to chose a particular side. It didn't really affect him, anyway. Dark creatures had to be found and contained and then turned over to the next person, who would see them to their proper place. Politics might decide what that place was, but it didn't affect how he did his job.

At the age of thirty-odd years, the boy finally got married. He found a young woman, not quite young enough to be his daughter. She was quite a looker, or at least she seemed to be in some of the pictures. In other snaps, she had rather odd-shaped nose or eyes, and in still others she simply looked... off. The boy said she was a metamorphmagus. The old man looked it up to check. Metamorphmagi weren't considered dark or controlled for any reason, so there was no need to worry about her non-conformity. The Gray Man wasn't invited to the wedding.

* * *

Yet fate was at the window, and walked into his Ministry office in the form of a middle aged sort of man. The Gray Man had seen him around the Ministry, in the canteen and where have you, but hadn't put the face together with any name. There was just a tremor of something in the air as the man held out his hand and said, "Lyall Lupin? I'm Ted Tonks, Nymphadora's dad."

It was a solid shake, and Lyall noted that his son's father-in-law to be was younger than himself and had at one time been far more active than his Ministry job must now allow for. "How do you do, Ted, you say?"

"Short for Edward, but only the wife ever calls me that."

The Gray Man nodded with a twitch of his mouth. He remembered having a wife. He even remembered how and why proper names were used.

"Speaking of which," said Ted, "I'm supposed to give you this and make sure you read it."

Lyall unsealed and unrolled the scroll, which was heavy linen-weave parchment written upon with a well-schooled hand.

 _Dear Mr. Lupin,_

 _You are expected at 4:30 today at the Registry Office for the wedding._  
 _Do not be late._

 _Sincerely,  
Edward and Andromeda Tonks_

He looked up in confusion . "I was not planning to go."

Ted held up his hands. "We were told the kids wanted to go it alone, but that's been overruled by Andromeda."

"I'm the reason he was-"

"Remus told us all about it, including the fact that doesn't see it that way. He points out that Greyback was known to target children and that it could have been any child that night."

"Surely you can't want your daughter exposed to-"

"We've already argued that out with Remus. Our Dora can look out for herself. She's an Auror, you know."

"I'm still not sure."

Ted rested his hands on Lyall's desk. "Look, mate, if Dromeda were here, she'd tell you that family is something you only throw away when it's life or death. She'd tell you how important these moments are and a hundred other things that she believes. I've given up trying to figure out if those things are woman things or pure blood things or just her. She'd tell it all to you, and you would find that you believe it deep in your soul as if you'd believed it from childhood. Trust me on that. The kids were planning to run to Gretna, but she wanted to be there, and she insists that Remus's family be there, too."

Ted looked around and lowered his voice. "What _I'm_ going to tell you is that you'd better be there. The witch posts a mean Howler."

The Gray Man considered it, his mouth twitching all the while. His own wife hadn't had the means to post a Howler even if she'd wanted to write one, but he'd seen one or two from his own mum, not to mention those received by friends and co-workers from time to time. No doubt the House of Black had its own special spin on the technique. A Howler was quickly over, of course, but he wanted Remus to have as fair a start with his in-laws as possible.

He sighed. "I'll be there."

Ted smiled and held out his hand to shake again. "We really like Remus. The combination of our families will be a good thing."

Due to the events of the following week, he would never exchange more than a greeting with Tonks again, yet because of that short conversation, Lyall Lupin would come to think of Edward Tonks as a kindred spirit.

* * *

He worked on the folder on his desk, making notes for what he would do when he went into the field the next day. He told himself that he wouldn't go to the wedding, after all. If he didn't go, he wouldn't be late, would he? Could it really matter that much to Remus, or to the Tonkses? Besides, his clothes were rumpled. Surely that was enough reason not to go.

He sighed and set the folder on the top of his desk. Then ran out the door. There was a twenty-four hour dry cleaner around the corner from the Ministry, and with luck, there was more than enough time to do something about the rumpled state of his robes.

At four twenty-five, wearing robes that were still distinguished when proper care was taken of them, The Gray Man walked through the doors of the Registry Office. The first thing he saw was the beaming face of his son. Remus wasn't looking at him, though. He was smiling at his bride, who was gorgeous in quite elegant dress robes. Her brown hair was swept up, and she looked very much a bride. Ted Tonks caught his eye and nodded, and then the Gray Man saw Andromeda, who was looking at him with a face full of approval. She was glad he was there, and for some reason he knew that she was aware of the care he'd taken in his appearance. He allowed himself to bask in that approval for the instant he had.

"Tonks! Lupin!" Their names were called from a clipboard and the wedding commenced. It was a sweet ceremony, and Lyall judged for himself that this was indeed the right woman for Remus. The nuptial charm was said, and the newly-wed couple kissed briefly before turning their radiant faces toward their parents. A moment later, everyone was outside the office. Nymphadora walked up to the Gray Man with a twinkle in her eye that she'd surely gotten from her father. "Thanks for coming... Dad!" She gave him a quick hug and moved on to her parents, leaving him with the impression of a vivacity that would soon exhaust him.

An instant later the bride was pulling her dress robe off, showing significant amounts of denim and a football shirt underneath. She handed the wadded up garment to Andromeda and said, "Thanks so much, Mum! We'll see you later!" A moment after that, the newlyweds were gone.

Andromeda stared after them with narrowed eyes and thin lips. "And what sort of wedding is this?" She shook out the dress robe in her hands. "Barely over and off to whatever takes her fancy. No time for a proper meal, or cake and a toast? The only greeting just a, 'Thanks for coming, see you later?'" A moment later the robe was folded into a neat package, which she twisted as her hands moved to emphasize her point.

Ted took the robe before she could damage it. "Ah, Dromeda, you know it's how she's always been. No tying her down. No doubt they've planned a romantic time for themselves and wanted to get to it as quickly as possible. Not much time off these days."

"No, I suppose not, and we have to worry about the moon, too."

They looked at the Lyall a little sheepishly. Andromeda stepped forward and took his hand into both of hers. "Mr. Lupin, I'm so sorry that this wasn't more of an event. I believe Ted got some pictures of it though, and at least they'll be able to tell their children a little bit of a story about it."

The Gray Man found himself smiling. "It's no trouble at all, Mrs. Tonks. It was more than I expected to participate in."

She sighed and looked at her husband. "I suppose I might as well take that shift at the hospital. There are one or two children I'm worried about."

Ted kissed her cheek. "I'm sure they'll be far better off for your care dear. Lyall, it's a pleasure. I'm sure we'll see you again soon."

They stood so close to each other, and there was something so intimate about the way they shared smallest of life's details. The Gray Man felt a wave of nostalgia for the time when that existed in his life. He made an awkward goodbye of some sort and left them at the elevator.

 _A/N: Thank you to Blue Artemis for the look over and the reassurance that this isn't too strange a boondoggle._


	2. Sepia Tone

_Disclaimer: The characters here and the world they inhabit are the creation and property of JK Rowling and her assigns._

The Gray Man didn't see the Tonks family again. At least he didn't see them together again. There was an overhaul of the Ministry and several rule changes regarding certain types of dark creatures, which he incorporated into his ongoing cases. Someone walked through the office, clucked with a pleased sound over his four magical grandparents, and left him to continue his job. Others weren't so lucky, but they weren't in his field of vision.

One evening he arrived home and saw a gray mass on the steps to his flat. As he approached, he saw that it was Remus, a very dejected Remus, with tears on his face. This flustered him. He'd never been the one the boy came to in the past, and shouldn't a newlywed be happy?

Remus stood up. "I've ruined everything!"

Lyall led him into his lounge. "I'm sure that's not true."

"Dad, she's pregnant."

It took him a moment to figure out how this could be worth crying over and gave up. "Congratulations!"

"Have you forgotten something important?" Remus's voice became a stage whisper. "Such as that I'm a werewolf?"

"You've managed it quite well for thirty-odd years now."

"But what if? And what if I'm not properly contained and hurt my child? And how good a parent can I be with the existence I've had? And what kind of father knowingly allows his child to be a werewolf?" His face was full of anger and disgust.

Out of no where, a pain went straight through Lyall's entire being. Merlin, after avoiding emotions for so long, it hurt. There. Remus had finally said it, after thirty-odd years of them all living through it.

"I'm sorry," he wheezed, unable to find his whole breath. "I was young and thoughtless and didn't think about what I was saying or who might be listening. I relive that day over and over..."

Remus looked stricken. "Dad, I didn't mean you. You were a wonderful dad. You and mum did everything to help me live with it. To make it almost your life's work, helping me to learn how to be a good man and a good wizard, despite my lycanthropy..."

Lyall looked up hopefully. Remus looked thoughtful for a moment, and then somehow the idea escaped him.

"I can't live with myself. I can't expect Dora to live with me under the circumstances."

"But don't you see..." Lyall shrugged helplessly... "life has to be lived."

"Andromeda said something like that. But what do you know about it?"

The Gray Man considered himself for a moment, and then became lost in the thought. He'd lived his life, _really lived it_ , until there was nothing left to live, hadn't he? _Hadn't_ he? Had he become so lost in finding a way to give Remus a normal life that he hadn't actually lived it with him?

Through the white noise in his mind, he was vaguely aware that Remus was still muttering. "Maybe Sirius's house..."

There was a crack of apparition, but the Gray Man didn't really notice it. He sat on a chair, still holding his briefcase, still wearing his outer robe, pondering the emptiness of his life.

* * *

There was another crack of apparition. The Gray Man looked up and saw his son again and that it was full dark. How long had he been pondering his life and whether he'd lived it?

" _Dad_." There was a note of resignation in the boy's face, as though he were used to inattention. Was the Gray Man really this preoccupied?

"Yes? Yes, you're back."

"I saw Harry Potter. Harry wanted nothing to do with me. He called me a coward. A _coward_ , Dad."

"With everything you've gone through and accomplished anyway? How dare he?"

"He's not wrong. But I can't face Tonks after what I've done."

"Is she angry?"

"She's-she was actually pretty happy until she saw my reaction. Dad, I can't face what this will do to her. Her family was tortured because they thought she knew where Harry was. Crucioed."

"Ted and... and Andromeda?"

"After a minute or two, she had some way of throwing it off. It was pretty scary, but I guess being raised a Black prepares a person for things. She got control of whoever was hexing her and demanded that they stop. They didn't know where to find Potter and there was no point to continuing the torture, because no one knows where Harry is."

A spark of interest ran through Lyall's mind. _Except Remus, now_. He opened his mouth, but the boy wasn't done talking.

"After the commission was set up, Ted left. Andromeda was furious and said that she could handle anyone who came after them, but he was adamant. He saw it as the best way to protect his family. She's like a force of nature, sort of like Tonks when she said she was determined to marry me, but look at what became of that. Ted couldn't stand for his wife to be tortured again, not because of him. Maybe Andromeda really is better off without Ted, and most likely Tonks is better off without me."

The Gray Man was nodding, following his own thoughts about what Remus was saying, now. This was what the world had become, when witches had to throw off Cruciatus hexes and men had to leave homes to protect their families.

"Dad."

There it was again, he needed to pay better attention. "I'm sorry. What is it?"

"Do you mind if I sleep on your sofa for a while? I'm not sure where to go."

"Of course. Of course. Or... there's a guest room in this flat. I'm not sure of the state of the sheets, but that's a minor fix..." With something concrete to do, Lyall stood and lead the way down the hall.

* * *

It was nice having the boy around. The Gray Man felt a little less gray with someone sharing the house, and it was nice to bump into another person when making coffee the next morning. Then he sort of lost track of Remus and a week after that realized he hadn't seen him much at all. He peeked into the guest room and saw that it was immaculately swept up and cleaned except for a note on the desk.

 _Dad,_

 _I've decided to go back to Tonks. She says she'll take me. Andromeda was right. Better to live a life than live a ghostly existence. I'll be in touch._

 _Remus_

Was there censure in that? Did Remus consider Lyall's life to be ghostly? A spark of annoyance burned in him as he fixed his dinner that night, and went over his cases and went to bed. It hummed through him the next morning, but one of the cases was particularly baffling and he forgot all about it until he got home. He shrugged and fixed his dinner and read through the folders he'd brought home before going to bed.

A few days later, the Gray Man reached his front door and was attacked from behind. Perhaps it was the side. He was smothered in a robe and a feminine voice said, "Thanks, Dad. Whatever you said mattered." When he was finally released and turned, he was face to face with a tall Amazon of a woman who bore a resemblance to his daughter-in-law. She winked, and suddenly her nose looked a bit like an Erumpet horn. Remus stood in the dim hallway behind her, looking pleased but awkward. Lyall hardly knew what to say. Remus reached for his wife's hand and they slipped away while the Gray Man fumbled with words and keys. "You're welcome. Do you wish for some tea?" He turned and saw that he was in an empty hallway.

 _A/N: Yes, it's been a while. In a flash a while back I had five chapters of this story written, posted one, and then got a review that got me thinking... and thinking... because I realized I had a problem with parts of the rest of this story and didn't know how to fix it. Meanwhile, one of the best recent stories in the Tedromeda genre is called "Victory Garden" by kazooband. It's a really good view of how a more ordinary household would have dealt with the events of Deathly Hallows. It has very little in common with this story other than time frame; in fact it doesn't mention Lyall at all, but it does touch on the issue that I couldn't figure out how to deal with and while re-reading it this week I saw my way through this chapter. Thank you for reading, and if you're so inclined, please feel free to mash the button and leave me a note._


	3. Ombre

_Disclaimer: The characters here and the world they inhabit are the creation and property of JK Rowling and her assigns._

There might have been a note or two, and the Gray Man set those on his desk with every intention of answering them. So things went as the fall wore on, past Halloween and then Christmas. He saw no reason to trouble anyone with his existence. The people at the Ministry might be a bit more demanding than usual, and there was always some urgent flyer going around demanding that someone or other get caught, but it had little to do with him. He kept finding the creatures he was sent to capture. Then he returned them to the places he was told to put them, giving custody to the keepers, and went to find his next folder.

He barely noted the New Year and kept working through the winter and early spring. A troll was found near Edinburgh, a knarl was captured near Blackpool. So on and so forth until April. He was writing preliminary notes about a redcap said to be somewhere in Cornwall when a note came from Andromeda Tonks of all people.

 _Mr Lupin,_

 _I thought you should know that we're about to be grandparents. Please come to the address at the top of this note._

 _Andromeda_

He shrugged. She must mean that he should come to meet the baby in the morning. He had plenty of time to catch the little blood-lover and bring it to the Ministry, although he was interested enough to hope they didn't plan to use it to hurt Muggles. He took another half hour to write the rest of his notes. Lyall had just got his protective gear on when a red envelope flew into his cubicle. Some sort of talons sprung from a corner and grabbed his elbow.

"Ouch!"

 _DO NOT IGNORE MY LETTER, MISTER LUPIN. I'M HOME ALONE WITH A LABORING WOMAN AND YOUR ASS OF A SON. COME TO THE ADDRESS I SENT YOU BEFORE I'M FORCED TO COME GET YOU MYSELF!_

The talons pinched a little more firmly, finding a way through his protective coat and drawing blood. Lyall took off his protective hat and gloves and nearly took off the coat as well but decided he might need it. He walked out of his cubicle to see several heads peering over the walls in the office.

"I believe I'll be out for the rest of the day, perhaps tomorrow too."

* * *

The Apparition directions brought him to a quiet country lane with a house of some sort in the distance. He walked down the lane and saw that the house was of an architecture popular eighty years earlier. It gave the impression of a one and a half story cottage. When he looked a little slantwise at it, he could tell that it was the sort of house that bordered on a mansion. He'd be surprised if there were fewer than six rooms on the first floor and another six on the second floor.

The garden made him sigh in appreciation. It was early spring, yet, but it was a well kept lawn in the places where it was lawn and otherwise a lovely landscape of shrubs and flowers all kept in harmony with each other and likely chosen to give harmony to whomever passed through. He had always pictured such a place when he thought of his retirement, back when he thought he would want to retire sometime.

He knocked on the door and it opened at his touch.

"Just get it out! I don't want it anywhere near me any more!"

"Can't you do anything for her?"

The gray man was in a hallway. As he got to the stairs, he saw his hostess approach from a hallway toward the back. She was holding two flasks.

"MIS-ter Lupin, I see you finally decided to pay us a visit."

"Your er-" The look she gave him was dangerous- " _correspondence_ suggested I could be of use."

"Indeed. Follow me."

He meekly followed her as she went up the stairs. They walked half way down the hall and stopped at a door.

"I have something for you," said Andromeda.

"She doesn't want it," said Remus.

"It's for you."

"I don't want it, either."

"Drink it or I'll lock you in the shed." The look in Andromeda's face accepted no argument. Remus took the flask she held out. She looked over at the Gray Man. "Lyall, take your son downstairs and keep him from making this harder than it needs to be, while I deal with my patient. Remus, I'll call you when you're wanted."

As they left the room, she walked over to the bed. "Nymphadora, this will help you relax while your body does the work. For once in your life you need to trust me."

* * *

Remus led the way to a comfortable lounge and sat on the couch. Lyall gingerly sat on what looked like an easy chair and found himself all but sucked into the comfort of it.

"Is Andromeda always like that?"

"Not really, except when she thinks things are going all to hell"

Lyall nodded.

Remus sighed. "Which is pretty much all the time, now."

Lyall nodded again. "She's some sort of Healer, right? She knows what she's doing."

"I know. I shouldn't have been trying to... I don't know what I was doing. She's a brilliant Healer. I've been told she'd be running the pediatric department if it weren't for Ted."

"How are you doing, son?"

"I'm just worried about Tonks. She's not used to going through this sort of thing. It's not as though she can pull out her wand and start casting spells to improve the situation."

"I strongly suspect her mother will know what to do with her."

"I don't doubt it. I think I lost my mind up there." He looked over at the Gray Man. "Thanks for coming, Dad. I know we don't see much of you, but..." He shrugged and yawned.

That pretty much exhausted their list of conversations. Remus drifted to sleep, and Lyall remembered a time when he paced in his own hallway, waiting for the boy to be born who became the man sitting across from him. He'd worried about Hope, but she'd sailed through beautifully, just as she did everything.

* * *

" _MIS-ter Lupin."_

A hand was holding a highball glass out to him. He looked up to see Andromeda, who looked much more relaxed. "The child is born, then?"

"A boy. Very healthy, and already a Metamorphmagus like his mum."

A shiver went through him and he looked at the glass. Andromeda held hers up. "To Edward Remus Lupin!"

The Gray Man swallowed the slightest bit of disappointment and lifted his glass up as well. "Teddy Lupin!"

It was the best firewhisky he'd ever tasted. "Amazing."

"Uncle Alphard would buy it already aged and then save it another 25 years. She looked at the bottle. "This one is from the 1920s."

"It doesn't get too old?"

"Not in Uncle Alphard's cellar." She sipped again. "How he would enjoy another generation in his house." She smiled at the thought, twisting her pearls as she did so. Lyall wondered, irrelevantly, how many healers wore pearls to deliver babies.

He took another swallow himself, letting it roll over and under his tongue. "How will you let your husband know-" He saw the look cross over her face and suddenly realized he'd made a mistake. He'd seen that face in the mirror every time he'd shaved for almost a decade, now- "I'm so sorry."

"Thank you."

"Do you mind me asking how it happened?"

Her face turned angry, but not at him. "He stumbled into a trap. It was bound to happen eventually." She looked piercingly at him. "It wouldn't have happened if he'd stayed with me. A bunch of bumbling fools who barely passed any O.W.L.s. I would have eaten them for lunch and he'd be here..." Her voice broke at the last word.

Lyall Lupin would never know why he did what happened next; perhaps the emotional upheaval of becoming a grandfather played a part. He just knew he had to stand up and put his drink down, taking hers and putting it aside as well. Then he pulled her into a hug so that he could hold her as she cried.


	4. Full Black

Disclaimer: The characters here and the world they inhabit are the creation and property of JK Rowling and her assigns.

 _Dear Mrs. Tonks_

 _Dear Andromeda_

 _Mrs. Tonks_

 _Andromeda,_

 _My dear,_

 _Dear,_

He tried for weeks to write a note. He felt a need to follow social convention, but he wasn't sure what it was, given what had happened. There was so much to discuss after that moment in her lounge. Remus had come down holding the baby so that Lyall could meet him. Andromeda had disappeared into the kitchen and then the Gray Man felt awkward and left soon after. Yet somehow there must be a way to express socially proper feelings about the birth of a grandchild and the death of a friend. Lyall had no idea what that was. Every morning he sat at the desk of his home office and took out a fresh piece of parchment, and every morning he went to work, unable to figure out how to even begin such a letter.

He made quick work of the Redcap whose capture was interrupted by the birth of Teddy Lupin and moved on to some Boggarts near Piccadilly. After that there were a ghoul in Yorkshire and some trolls in Glasgow. There was always some creature, and he was a bit suspicious when one of the trolls looked very familiar. A question came up in the back of his mind, but he turned the creatures over to the keepers as instructed.

A month went by in this way, and it was with great embarrassment that he found a letter on his desk when he arrived one morning, addressed to him in a handwriting that was becoming familiar.

 _Mr. Lupin,_

 _Given the events of the past day and night, I don't have the energy to send a Howler. I'm at Hogwarts, seeing to things, and I simply ask that you join me here if you can._

 _A~_

What events? The Gray Man lifted his head over his cubicle walls and noticed that the room was all but empty. There was some sort of weeping in the far corner, and a bit of scratching of quill on parchment over to the side, but none of the usual industry in the Magical Creatures Bureau. There was no one walking between the cubicles and no memos flying hither and yon. The walk in had been somewhat somber too, with few greetings along the way other than quiet whispers not intended for him.

He looked at the note again. Something horrible had happened, if it had kept her up all night and she was now at Hogwarts. The Gray Man looked longingly at his in box. Something about an Erumpet in the Lakes District. He didn't want to involve himself in Andromeda's trouble. He'd had too much trouble in his life already, in raising a werewolf. Surely Nymphadora and Remus were on hand to help her. He looked at the note again. She'd made no mention of them and at the pit of his stomach, he suddenly wondered what things she was seeing to. With dread in his heart he grabbed his hat and outside robe.

* * *

The dread only grew as he approached the elevators. Suddenly he realized just how quiet and hushed the Ministry was today. The few people who were there slipped around like ghosts, as though they hoped to transact their business and leave before they could be noticed.

He lost heart at the sight of the Hogwarts gates, that were twisted and pulled over their hinges as though by giants. There weren't many reasons why a pediatric Healer would be needed at a school with its own matron, and the reasons became clear as he walked past smoking tree stumps and craters in the lawn. At the door, a professor stopped him. "Are you here to pick up your children?"

"I'm supposed to meet Andromeda Tonks."

Her face, already sad, became kind. "Mr. Lupin, then? I remember Remus as a professor. The children loved him and he was quite a noble gentleman."

"Thank you."

"Andromeda is in the Great Hall, with-all of them."

His worst worries roused, Lyall went on and found Andromeda kneeling beside her daughter. She was wiping her face with a flannel and crying. The baby was held to Andromeda's chest with some sort of wrap. He cleared his throat and she looked up.

"I'm so sorry," she said.

It was then that he realized Nymphadora was dead and that on the other side of Andromeda was Remus.

* * *

At some time, the Gray Man realized he was sitting in a well-kept kitchen. Chocolate scones were baking in the oven, and the hot cocoa in his hands must have brought him back to himself. His hostess was also sitting at the table, holding a bottle in the baby's mouth.

"I can't think what came over me," he said by way of apology.

"It was shock. I should have found some other way to tell you," she said. The fragility of their last meeting had come upon her, except now she was completely worn out. The war had used her up.

He felt ashamed. He'd done nothing while so many others had shouldered all of the burdens. "I should have been here."

She shook her head.

"No, I should have. Since the wedding, I should have been here."

"What difference would it have made?"

Could he have convinced Ted Tonks not to leave the home where he was safe? Could he have protected Ted when the Snatchers found him? What about in the month and a half since the baby was born?

"I could have done more than I did."

"Perhaps," she agreed. "But perhaps if everyone had done more than they did, this war wouldn't have even happened. One tiny little shift on everyone's part, maybe." She shrugged, "How was any of us to know what the difference was or would have been?"

"I wouldn't have expected Nymphadora to go."

"She couldn't stand to be away from Remus if he was in danger, and she was always one who couldn't bear to miss the action. They tell me it was my own damned sister."

He'd kept himself away from pain for so long that was almost unbearable to see even in another. His own loss washed over him and nearly took him. He took another sip from his mug and let the chocolate flavor soothe him. "What will you do now?"

"Manage, somehow."

He sipped again. The pain still hurt, but it was the right thing, somehow. It was right to feel the pain, to grieve, to allow himself to accept that something was gone and he wanted it back. Out of the corner of his eye there was color: Andromeda's healer robes. She was leaning over the oven, pulling out her baking pans. The scones were ready.

He spoke before he could talk himself out of it. "Were you at Hogwarts all night?"

She shook her head. "Teddy and I were at St. Mungo's until it was over, and then we went to Hogwarts. They were sending the most serious cases to the hospital all night."

An urge leapt up in him, and he followed it before it had a chance to shrink away. "You'll be wanting to rest, then."

She shook her head. "There's no rest for me. I'm home for a bit of a snack, but then back to the hospital. I have several cases I need to keep an eye on."

"There must be some way I can help."

She smiled. "I don't wish to put you out, Mr. Lupin."

He felt a little annoyed. Was it with her for brushing him off, or with himself for making it seem as though he didn't care to be part of the family for so long? He'd work that part out later. "It's high time I let myself be put out. Teddy is my grandson, too."

She raised her chin and an eyebrow. "Have you any idea what to do?"

His annoyance still piqued, he answered, "I spend my days tracking magical creatures. If you will tell me the basic things I need to do with this one, I'm sure we'll manage, and you'll be better able to do your work at St. Mungo's."

She relented. "Well, that's true enough. While the baking cools, let me show you about his bottles and diapers, and I think he'll go into his cot for several hours. There's a day bed in the nursery, so you can rest too."


	5. Gray Scale

_Disclaimer: The characters here and the world they inhabit are the creation and property of JK Rowling and her assigns._

Within an hour, Lyall proved that he could pass muster. Andromeda nodded her head and went to her bedroom. A few minutes later, dressed in fresh healer robes, she patted a sleeping Teddy on his behind and nodded to Lyall. He stared at the baby as she moved through the house. There was the firm thud of the front door closing, a clanking sound as the gate shut, and after that the crack of Apparition.

Then there was silence. The Gray Man looked around himself and swallowed hard. There was really nothing to do until the baby woke up again, so his best option at the moment was to sleep himself. He knew where the loo was from Andromeda's quick tour of the house, but he'd forgotten to bring pajamas or a change of clothes for the morning. He realized they hadn't made any arrangements for that, either. Would he be able to go to work in the morning? Should he? How could he not, given the number of magical creatures at large in England after the battle of Hogwarts?

The baby woke up twice in the night. Both times, the Gray Man simply did what he'd been told. Change the baby, feed the baby, rock the baby to sleep and then check the baby again before putting him in the cot. On the second go around, the baby wouldn't sleep. The Gray Man sat on the daybed and cradled Teddy close to his chest. The baby whimpered for just a minute before yawning and somehow burrowing deeper into Lyall's chest. A moment later small snores were heard.

It was probably a couple of hours later that Andromeda's harrumph woke them up. "I'm required to tell new mothers that what you're doing is extremely unsafe." Her voice moderated. "Between you and me, though, sometimes it's the only way to get them to sleep and catch a few winks of your own. Just make sure your position is such that he can't slip and get caught between you and a pillow or something."

Lyall smiled down at their grandson before handing him up to her. "I will keep that in mind for next time. As far as I know, everything went as you directed. Do you need me today? If not, I should get home to have breakfast and shower and change. I'm sure there are plenty of creatures that need my department's attention."

She nodded. "From what I'm hearing, they definitely need you to get to work, so you're free to go. On the other hand, I made a rather large breakfast, if you're interested?"

Lyall felt a hunger pang as he realized he smelled bacon.

* * *

It was obscene, how quickly a moment's urge became a way of life. The Gray Man made an offer, and an hour later he'd been put in charge of a tiny wizard. Ten hours after that, he was promising, over bacon and porridge, to come back that evening so that Andromeda could go back to work. She had already had the foresight to arrange working nights while there were so many patients at the hospital. The only shift was that after a little planning ahead, Lyall insisted on being the one to take care of the morning meal. Andromeda watched him carefully the first time and then gratefully nodded her acquiescence. If he noticed, once in a while, that she sat on a window seat that looked out over the back garden carefully wiping her eyes every few seconds, she never mentioned finding him doing something similar, except sitting in the lounge.

After a week of following this first day's pattern, they stood side by side at the combined funeral of Nymphadora and Remus, both dry eyed and both looking a bit gray and shabby. The Gray Man watched Andromeda receive condolences and well wishes and thought to himself that she was a bit gray around the edges now, just as he had once been before going fully gray. The vibrancy he'd seen on their first meeting had been washed out by too much grief. It was a great shame; she was quite lovely in her regal way, and now she looked beaten down.

* * *

Three weeks later, Lyall came down to fix breakfast and found Andromeda ahead of him, pulling a finished pan of scones out of the oven. He saw that her face was all red from the heat, until he realized that her eyes were full of tears. He rushed forward to help her.

"My dear, what is it?" he asked. He drew her to a chair and sat her down.

She got back up and shook her head. "I have another pan that needs to be moved to the other rack." Lyall pushed her back into her chair and took the pot holders. "One of my patients, a sweet young boy, isn't going to recover."

Lyall moved the scones as directed and looked at her with the question on his face. She shrugged. "It's not spell damage; it's a poison."

"You can't find the antidote?"

"It's some sort of acromantula sting, but the standard antivenin didn't work. If anything, he's worse. If we can't figure this out, it's a matter of days."

Lyall thought for a moment. "Did he describe the creature that stung him?"

"He said it was an acromantula, but different somehow."

"A bit longer and thinner than the usual sort?"

"Yes.

Lyall nodded. When he got to the office, he looked through the inbox of active files and found a particular folder. He waved the folder at the manager, who nodded, and then he headed to Hogwarts. Heading toward the Forbidden Forest, he skirted around a meadow and entered through a berry patch.

"Zzzzz... you aren't supposed to beee heere... zzz."

"Ralph, I told you that if you stung anyone again, I'd have to come find you again."

"It was just a _little_ one, and I so rarely get any fun any more," whined the creature.

Lyall sighed and pulled out his wand. _"Petrificus Totalus!"_

* * *

After clearing up a group of Boggarts he found near the Caretaker's cottage garden, he returned to Andromeda's house. She was already cooking again, or rather from the looks of it had been cooking since he left. A roast chicken was sitting on the table, along with dressing and vegetables. From the smell of it, there was roast pork in the oven. A stew of some sort was bubbling on the back of the cook top, while several counter surfaces contained pies and cakes. The baby was wrapped against her chest.

"Are you cooking for the hospital?" he asked.

She looked around. "No. I just couldn't sleep, and this gave me something to do. I didn't want to be wakened by the news that little Roger had... had..." she bit her lip.

He carefully placed a vial on the table. "Try this in your antivenin."

She picked it up. "We've tried acromantula antivenin. Didn't I tell you?"

He nodded toward it. "That's from an apimagnus."

She pondered it. "A bee?"

"More like a wasp."

She thought for a moment and then nodded. "That actually does sound more like what he described. Are they really near Hogwarts?"

He shrugged and sighed. "Just the one, and it's quite long in the tooth. I think it's just staying alive because it knows it troubles me so much."

* * *

He woke early the next morning to the smell of bacon. Wondering what new tragedy had struck and fearing she would break down altogether, he went down in his pajamas to see her singing along with the wireless. The gray had moderated to subtle browns; compared to a month earlier, she was radiant.

"Lyall! You'll never imagine... Well, of course you imagined it, that's why you helped us!"

"It was the right venom?"

"Precisely. Just the odor of the potion seemed to perk him up, and after he took it-well, we expect him to go home with his parents in a couple of days."

Lyall felt his face cracking. It was the first smile in months. "I'm delighted."

She came over to him and hugged him tight. "It was all your doing. Thank you so much."

He'd always thought that Nymphadora's artless charm had come from her father. Now, for the first time, he realized that he's daughter-in-law's charm seemed so boundless because it came from both parents. He knew that the grief wasn't gone. In a matter of hours or perhaps moments it would be as crushing as ever, but for the moment Lyall would eat all the breakfast that Andromeda put on his plate, and he would feast upon the joy on her face just as glutinously.


	6. Subtle Browns

_Disclaimer: The characters here and the world they inhabit are the creation and property of JK Rowling and her assigns._

It was the last week of June when the Gray Man-Lyall actually-went to Andromeda's house in a cheerful mood with good news. Andromeda was likewise cheerful, singing along with the wireless. She handed him the baby and turned to pull a pan of biscuits out of the oven.

"Good news?" he asked. "I've had some too."

"I received the letter on the table, today."

It was a memo from St. Mungo's. Effective immediately, Andromeda Black was the new head of pediatric healing. She would be moved to the daytime shift.

"Congratulations!" he pretended to show Teddy the letter, trying to get the baby to make one of his rare smiles.

"Thank you!" she responded. "And as you can see, I'll be working days now, with proper days off."

"I guess that's progress, with so many of the wounded being healed now."

"Exactly. With us both working days, I'll need to take Teddy to the day care center, where I can look in on him and have lunch with him, but I'll be able to cover the night times. You can go back to your home now, and your regular life."

The Gray Man felt everything wash out of him. Unseeing, he stumbled into the mud room and stood before the door to the back garden, not looking at anything but grateful to have something that he could face so he wouldn't have to face her.

He felt her hand on his arm. "Lyall?"

Suddenly he was shuddering, and his face was wet. He still held the baby, who studied him carefully.

Andromeda's voice took on concern. "Mr. Lupin, please! Come sit down."

He felt himself be guided to the table. He was maneuvered into a chair and then there was hot cocoa. "I'm sorry," she was saying. "Can you tell me what I've done?"

"I found out that we can go back to a regular work week from now on, too." He shook his head and cleared his throat. "Nothing, really. It's just that this past month has been almost like having a family again, and now..."

"You don't want it to end?"

He shrugged.

She smiled. "Well, to be honest, I like the idea of being able to switch between us to take care of the baby. But we both know this was just temporary. You can't stay on that daybed any more."

"It's perfectly comfortable."

"You need to be in your own space, with your own things." She sighed.

"I can't give this up. I just can't." He hated having anyone see him this way, but it was too late now, and if there was a scene, he might as well fight for his point.

Teddy gurgled, which seemed to prompt a decision from his grandmother. "No, I see that." She nodded toward the hallway, so Lyall and Teddy followed her down the hall and upstairs to a door he'd never seen open before. She opened it. "This was Alphard's room. There's quite a bit still to go through, if you don't mind." She walked across and threw open the curtains. "As you can see, there's a sort of sitting room or office area, a separate bedroom, and its own bath."

"I remember Alphard. We were at Hogwarts together."

She looked surprised. "I forget things like that. He always seemed so _old_. You may find things you remember from those days. Now, if I remember correctly, I have some clean sheets that will fit this bed in Nymphadora's room..."

Lyall looked at a wall that seemed to be taken up with a map of England. The house they were in stood in the center. To the south were markings for Malfoy Manor and London. There was a grayed out section marked "Lestrange." He pointed at it and said, "I take it he was quite a cartographer."

"That's the family map..." Andromeda looked at it, backed away, and then looked again, appearing to take measurements with her hands and arms... "Salazar's silky... oh shit." She rushed out of the room, but then stuck her head back through the doorway. "Feel free to move things around. We'll probably need to throw some things out, but I don't think anything in there is dark. He wasn't like that in the least. I hope you'll excuse me, I need to-" There was a thumping as she rushed down the stairs and around to a small library.

Lyall followed her more slowly. Teddy was napping in his arms. When he arrived in the library, Andromeda had a large-version copy of _Nature's Nobility_ open on a standing desk. She was looking at family trees. "Dead... but what about... no, dead... married into the family so doesn't count... dead... indirect..." She bit her lip and checked the edition date. "No one born since Draco..."

He cleared his throat and asked. "Is something the matter?"

She looked up with a bleak look on her face. "They're all dead or they aren't direct line."

"Who?"

"My relatives." She sat down heavily in a mid-century easy chair, her head thrown back. Facing the ceiling she whispered. "I'm the head of the whole damned family."

He went to the lounge and put Teddy in his downstairs cot. Then he poured two double portions of Alphard's excellent brew. Returning, he handed her a glass and sat on an adjoining chair. "You just discovered this?"

"That map in Alphard's room rearranges itself to center on the home of the current head, and the family tree shows... well I'm the oldest living direct lineal, now that Bel-my sister- is dead."

While she sipped, he pondered a moment and then asked, "Why does it matter?"

"It doesn't really. The whole pureblood thing is obviously rot. It's not like I'm the source of magic for the family. Muggle born magical people prove that."

"Now wait a minute. I've watched you tend your hearthstone. I know you care about the old ways."

She smiled into her glass. "My hearthstone is a valuable _tool_. The family fire is a source of warmth and food. If the stone was damaged through improper use or excessive wear, I'd have to start with a new one, which would be a significant loss. I could do it, but it would be years before the fire would behave properly."

He nodded, understanding the difference now, at least as she saw it. "So why should we care who the head of your family is?"

She swallowed what was left in her glass, a little too much perhaps, and wheezed for a moment. "I don't care, but my family does. They're going to torture my life out over things I don't give Merlin's wand about."

It was Lyall's turn to have a problem with his drink. "What are you going to do about it?"

She took his glass and got up. "Nothing until I'm forced," she said ruefully. "They will think they have to come to me at some point, but they'll wait as long as they can, I think. For tonight I guess we should have our dinner and then see about that bed for you. A quick dusting is in order, and then we can see about moving you in properly later in the week."

* * *

They ate at the kitchen table. This was their usual custom, although Andromeda invariably insisted upon a table cloth and proper place settings for dinner. "It doesn't really help, but it _seems_ like it's more normal," she said. Lyall couldn't disagree. Making the effort to have this sort of time with an adult who wasn't a co-worker did stimulate thoughts that weren't directly related to the sadness at the center of their lives. They ate at the table and discussed their work as well as the current events in the Wizarding world. It had got to the point where one or two current events was not related to the deaths of so many people they knew. They clung to those things as to a lifeline and discussed Magical celebrity marriages in America or Quidditch standings in Spain as though they were critical issues.

Tonight they were interrupted by an owl at the window.

"Oh, Merlin, I thought they'd wait longer than this," she hissed. She sat back. "They will have realized a month ago, I suppose, so they've had time to come up with ways to torture my life out."

Lyall got up and let the bird in. "There's an HP on the return address," he observed, handing the scroll to her. The owl made for the table, but Lyall sent it on its way with a couple of bites of pie. There was an indignant squawk and then silence. Lyall shut the window.

Andromeda broke the seal. "This is from Harry Potter."

"What's he to do with us?"

She was reading. "According to young Mr. Potter, Remus asked him to be Godfather to Teddy."

Something echoed in the back of the Gray Man's head. Remus had been talking about the possibility of looking forward to a baby, and said that of course Harry would have to be Godfather since James and Sirius were both gone. Lyall cleared his throat. "I believe I've heard something about that."

The paper rattled. "Well, he can have any title he wants, but we're going to have to speak seriously about all of these plans the very young Mr. Potter has outlined here."

She handed Lyall the letter, and he read it. "He couldn't possibly take Teddy to live with him, of course, but perhaps what he's saying about outings and such... Would it be so terrible for Teddy to have more people around him?"

"No, I don't suppose so." They were both done eating, and a wave of Andromeda's wand had the dishes in a sink filling with bubbly water. "Perhaps he just doesn't know how it is here. I'll send him a note in return."


	7. The Mad Reds

_Disclaimer: The characters here and the world they inhabit are the creation and property of JK Rowling and her assigns._

A week after Andromeda received a letter from Harry Potter, the boy-young man, rather-was sitting at Andromeda's kitchen table, doing justice to her baked goods and a mug of hot cocoa. Lyall watched from across the table, unsurprised. It was part of his entry into the household, after all. Andromeda subscribed to a school of medical thought that taught a full stomach was a key part of healing. For this sort of thing, she was very likely right.

Their hostess held court from the head of the table. "I am simply saying that I don't see the point in uprooting a child from his home, from the home he lived in briefly with his own parents. Certainly I don't see the value of an inexperienced young man trying to take care of that child, without any help, and while trying to finish his own education."

It was a long mouthful of words, but Lyall felt she stated the case fairly well.

"I just thought," said Harry, around a chocolate scone, "that since neither of us has a family, that we can be family to each other."

The Gray man looked at his counterpart and saw that she looked as stricken as he felt. He cleared his throat, and she nodded. "Harry, begging your pardon, but you know that Teddy has family. He has _us_ , his grandparents."

It was Harry's turn to look stricken. "But he is the only family _I_ have."

Andromeda reached for Harry's hand. "I don't wish to take him from you. I wish to do this in such a way that Teddy gets the best of all the things offered to him. Lyall and I are in a position to offer him safety and consistency-and of course our love-in the home where his mother grew up. You knew his parents as they were more recently, and you're in a special position to bring that to his life. He needs it all. Do you see that?"

Harry sat back and smoothed his hair away from his face, then brushed some back over his forehead. "You might be right. I don't think I have any place to bring him yet."

"I thought Sirius left his house to you."

"He did, but it's still in quite a state. Even with Kreacher helping, there are so many items that are fixed in place. I can't bring a baby into a house like that."

Andromeda smiled ruefully, memories clearly having been touched. "I recall the 'grim old place' as Sirius and I called it. You're right, it's not place for a child, and you're showing your maturity that you know it." She sat up suddenly. "I may be in a position to help you."

Kreacher was summoned to discuss the situation. "Mistress Black honors Kreacher." The House-elf bowed until his forehead touched the floor.

Andromeda knelt next to him. Her head was now at the same height as the elf's. "You honor me, Kreacher," she responded. "Master Harry," she nodded toward the young man, "would like to make some changes to the old house. I want to ask your advice before we begin."

The House-elf bowed again. "Mistress Black honors Kreacher."

Harry whispered to Lyall, "Why is he bowing and calling her Mistress Black?"

Lyall whispered back, "We've discovered that she's the head of the Black family. It's mostly an honorary title, but there are some small abilities that are written into some of the wills and legacies of the houses or what-have-you, and House-elves have their own relationship to the family."

Andromeda cleared her throat. "Kreacher, there are three things in particular that we must change. First, we must remove the portrait of Aunt Walburga."

"Take down old Mistress?" Kreacher's hands clawed at his ears.

"We can keep her in a part of the house where she won't cause trouble. Your quarters, perhaps, or the attic where you can visit with her, but she cannot stay where she is. The family needs different things now. Do you understand?"

Kreacher looked at Harry and then Andromeda. "Mistress Black can do whatever she wants to old Mistress. Why does she ask Kreacher?"

"We know how attached you were to her, and we don't wish to offend."

"And Kreacher gets portrait?"

"If that is your wish."

"Kreacher understands and accepts."

"Very well, we wish to do the same with the family tree tapestry."

"Kreacher accepts that as well. Does Kreacher get the tapestry, too?"

"Yes, if he wishes."

"Very well." Kreacher sounded resigned. "What is third thing?"

Harry made to speak, but Andromeda held up her hand. She went from kneeling to sitting on the floor so that her head was now below the House-elf's. She took Kreacher's hands. "We would like to move the House-elves."

Kreacher shook his head and tried to pull his hands free, "Mistress... no..."

"Listen to me." Andromeda didn't raise her voice, but her tone was clear, and Kreacher was instantly quiet. "It's not that we don't appreciate the House-elves' years of devotion and work for the family; quite the contrary. We want to give them a proper burial. There's a part of the Black family plot-"

"Mistress wants to put elves with Black family?" This amazed Kreacher more than anything.

"Yes. You have all been part of the family, and you deserve proper graves, with marker stones and everything. I hope that you will help us put the right information on the stones."

"Oh, mistress!" Kreacher burst into tears. "Kreacher agrees. Kreacher agrees very much. Just wait until other Black House-elves find out..."

Andromeda sat back down in her chair and spoke in an undertone to Harry. "I have the ability to say the spells that will remove all such objects from the house. As Lyall told you, I have little actual power, but whoever put those things up did so while giving the power to remove them to the head of the family and only that person. Luckily or unluckily, that falls to me."

* * *

The next evening, Lyall came home late. He discovered that Harry was tending Teddy in the nursery. "Where's Andromeda?"

Harry shrugged. "She cleared up the kitchen and put a plate for you next to the stove. Then she told me I'm being tested with the baby and disappeared."

Lyall nodded. She'd tested him to some extent, too, but as a grandfather he'd been given some credit. He changed out of his work robes and went down to the kitchen. As he cleared up his dishes, he heard some sort of noise coming from the back garden. Following the sound, he found Andromeda sitting in an outdoor lounge chair. between her and a second chair was a small table. A bottle of wine, two glasses and an ash tray with a lit cigarette were sitting upon it. A more substantial table to the side was blaring something that might be music.

Andromeda heard or sensed him coming. "Disco," was all she said.

"I've heard of that," he responded. "I'm not sure I care for it."

"This is a song I've hated since the first time I heard it. Why would anyone leave their cake outside? And if it started raining, why wouldn't they bring it back in? And it's always going to rain some time. Why would you deliberately put a cake outside when you know it's likely to rain? And for pity's sake, who ever heard of a recipe you can only use once? Ted loved it, however. Sangria?"

"You may be taking it too literally." He poured himself a glass. It was a little tart, but otherwise good. "Why are you listening to a song you hated?"

She gestured to the record player, where a changer had a small stack of records. "I happened to be in Ted's study today and saw that he had these. They're from our wedding."

Lyall poured himself a glass of the wine. "Your cigarette is all ash."

She shrugged. "I never smoked more than a handful of times-terrible habit-but for some reason, I can't listen to this music without smelling the smoke. I'm not smoking it. I lit it and put it there for the mood." She stubbed it out and lit a new one, setting it on the ash tray.

They watched the stars, and every so often she mentioned the name of a song or the artist. Something about Bees, a woman named Donna, a fellow with two first names... they all swirled around in the night. The last record dropped, the first few notes played a gentler beat, and Andromeda got very quiet. Suddenly she picked up the cigarette she'd had no intention of smoking and took several puffs.

 _We'll go dancing in the dark, walking through the park and reminiscing..._

In a single swoop, Andromeda got up and pushed the needle off the record with a loud scratch. She took it off the spindle and broke it over the side of the table. Lyall stood up. "Problem?"

She looked up with eyes that glittered in the starlight. "We were supposed to live that. Dammit, Ted, why did you have to leave?" She whirled on her heel and stormed into the house.

Lyall put the wine and glasses in the kitchen and guessed that the record player went into Ted's study. He repaired the record, although he knew it would never work correctly again, and set it all on the desk. Then he went upstairs to check on Potter and the baby.

"Thank Merlin," said the young man. "I did everything she told me, and he's still crying."

"He's over tired and doesn't realize he can go to sleep with you," responded the grandfather. "I'll take over; he'll probably go down in a few minutes."

 _A/N: The above song lyrics are from Little River Band's Reminiscing. To be honest, I can't find any evidence that it was on the British charts, so I'm finessing it a bit, hoping that perhaps it had a small cult following in the UK._

 _The other song referenced here is Donna Summer's cover of "MacArthur Park." I had no other songs fixed in my mind; they could easily be taken from any random sampling of Disco or late 1970s music._


	8. Yellow Streak

_Disclaimer: The characters here and the world they inhabit are the creation and property of JK Rowling and her assigns._

The Gray Man wasn't sure how to approach Andromeda next, but made breakfast the next morning as was the post-war habit. She came down as was also the habit, for the most part looking fresh and professional as ever. As he pushed her coffee across the table he noticed that she looked a little washed out and her eyes gave evidence of a long, sleepless night. Yet she ate her breakfast and discussed Teddy's needs and schedule for the day the way she always did. The Gray Man said little more than to respond to her comments, more from a sense of awkwardness than wisdom, and left for the ministry and his day ahead. He'd stopped into Ted's study and took the broken record. After thinking about it all night, he'd decided that he would pay a visit to a muggle shop a few streets over from the Ministry. The worst thing that would happen was Andromeda would order him to leave. He went a little grayer at the thought. It really would be the worst thing.

True to her word, Andromeda went with Harry over to the Black family home in London. Lyall spent the evening playing with Teddy, who was starting to show a preference for some of his toys and some of the stories they read.

"Babbity Rabbity" was just about done when Harry and Andromeda came back. Lyall heard Harry quietly say, "It's ok. We can do more some other time."

She answered, "But I _promised_ Kreacher. Do you know what it's like when a House-elf is disappointed in you?" She sighed.

Harry came to take the baby and nodded toward the sitting room. Lyall saw Andromeda disappear into it. "I know she really wanted to, but something held her back. I don't blame her or anything. Maybe you can talk to her? I can get this wizard into bed."

The Gray Man took a deep breath and followed his hostess, or landlady, or whatever he should call her.

Andromeda was pouring the Ogden's Old. She swallowed what was in her glass and poured two fingers for him. "'Blood-traitor whore' is what she called me, before I could open my mouth. She told me I was a disappointment to the name of Black. With the heads of all the House-elves watching, she told me I was nothing, that it was impossible for me to be head of the Black family, that after I was gone my family was able to act as if I'd never existed, because I really don't exist." She punctuated her words by waving the highball glass. "What could I do? I held my wand and pointed it at her portrait, and suddenly, _I didn't exist_. At least I didn't remember the spell to remove her from the wall. It was all I could do to close the curtains Sirius had installed." She was pouring another two fingers for herself and sat next to him on the sofa.

He searched for something to say. "Sometime you can go back, right? You can take care of it then."

She blew out a deep breath. "I did take care of the family tapestry. I hadn't seen it in decades. We used to trace the gold threads and wonder who would be attached to our own names, but my name is gone. In that house, maybe I _don't_ exist after all." She sighed. "I'm still deathly afraid to face Aunt Walburga, and there's no way I can do anything for those poor elves while she's watching." She turned and looked at him. "And somehow there's a betrayal of the things I've learned and become since I ran off with Ted in all of that. I don't know how I'll ever find the nerve to do everything that needs to be done. I feel so small and useless."

There must be some way to comfort her, but perhaps because he was facing fears of his own, the Gray Man didn't do anything. Together they just sat quietly on the couch, almost close enough to be touching, and sipped their drinks.

* * *

"That looks official," Andromeda remarked a few mornings later when an owl delivered a certified scroll.

The Gray Man put the fry-pan into the sink and opened it. "It's my apartment lease. It's time to sign the annual paperwork to renew it."

"Oh." Something about Andromeda went quiet. She was suddenly very interested in the porridge going into Teddy's mouth. The pan was cleaned and set to dry, and he sat down to his eggs. "The thing is," she continued somewhat slowly, "I thought you'd already let it go."

"Quite a few of my things are still over there."

"Oh." More porridge went into a baby who was starting to twist his head away. "Are there so many things? Would it fit here?" He realized she was biting her lip.

He thought for a moment. What was she really asking? The baby finally squawked in outrage that he'd had quite enough breakfast, thank you, and Andromeda finally shook herself into setting aside the bowl and cleaning him up.

The Gray Man shook himself a little too. "I don't suppose there's so much. I took it furnished, so most of the big things don't even belong to me. I could easily bring it all here."

"So you could let the apartment go, right? I mean, you don't have to of course, but since you spend all of your time here-or do you?"

"Yes, I do. I haven't been there since I brought my clothes over."

"Are there memories there? I don't mean to pry." She was very red by now, gathering up the baby's paraphernalia and her own to go to the hospital for the day.

"No, I moved there after." She nodded; she knew what he meant. He made a decision. "I can certainly bring everything over here if it's no trouble. Could you help me go over and clear everything up?"

She nodded. "Certainly. Tonight Harry is having his friends over, and I don't know what's happening for the next few days, but Thursday is his usual night to watch Teddy. Will that be in time, if we go over Thursday evening?"

He looked at the paperwork again. "I have a month from today so Thursday will be fine."

* * *

It was strange how foreign the apartment looked to him. He knew every stick of furniture and every dish, but for some reason, it all seemed like a place he used to visit, and a sad place at that. He started in his bedroom, boxing things of his own and setting them beside boxes of Hope's things he'd never unpacked. It was slow going. Although the apartment had no memories of Hope for him, many of the things in the apartment did. He looked through her record collection and felt a new wave of sadness that she couldn't be there to enjoy the music she so loved.

Having finished the kitchen, Andromeda was in the guest room, making a quick job of spare linens and ancient family knick-knacks. Suddenly there was a scream and something fell to the floor and smashed. Lyall went running across the hall. Standing in the open closet door was a child of about five years, looking innocent in a white robe. Andromeda was backing away from it, her hands over her face.

" _Riddikulus!_ " The apparition became his empty apartment kitchen. " _Riddikulus!_ " It was now the same kitchen filled with bright daisies that burst into a puff of smoke.

Andromeda had backed up to the bed and sat on it. "What. Was. That?"

He sat next to her and took her trembling hands into his own. "That, my dear, is the true form of the Boggart. When it can't find a fear to latch on to, it's as simple as a child."

"I'm not fearless. I'm anything but fearless." Her trembling eased. "But I don't know that I have anything to lose anymore." Her eyes looked empty.

A chill went through the room. He set her hands down and withdrew a little. "I don't think that's true. You've already started rebuilding your life and making a lovely life for our grandson. I think you will find that what you saw was a lifetime of possibility in front of you."

Her spine stiffened and a weak smile emerged, faltered, and became stronger. She nodded her head. "My fears can be conquered, you mean, and my past need not impinge upon the future."

"Something like that."

She nodded thoughtfully, and then looked around the room. "I'm just about done here, and so is the kitchen. How are the rooms you're working on?"

Lyall was soon sending his boxes to his rooms and a corner of Ted's study that Andromeda had cleared out for the purpose, and they returned to the Tonks home. As soon as they'd made sure all of the boxes were where they wanted them, Andromeda took Teddy from Harry, kissed him, and gave him to Lyall.

Turning to Harry, she said, "Come, Mr. Potter, we have a snake to beard."

* * *

They returned in less than two hours, with milkshakes. Harry and Andromeda were laughing together and handed Lyall a styrofoam cup. It was chocolate. He smiled at Andromeda, who winked at him.

"She was totally wicked," Harry said. "She listened to the old woman, nodded her head, and said, 'Yes, Aunt Walberga, you are the past, and a very grand past, but Harry is the future and it's time to go.' Then she said the spell and Kreacher had to be quick to keep the portrait from smashing on the floor. He took it to the attic, where it's shouting at the empty Hippogriff cage for all I know. At any rate, it's off the wall."

"Did you also take down the elves?"

"We gently placed them on the kitchen table. Kreacher and his family will prepare them for burial. There will be a service next Tuesday afternoon."

"I will be there," said Lyall. He saluted Andromeda with his milkshake.


	9. Serenade in Blue

_Disclaimer: The characters here and the world they inhabit are the creation and property of JK Rowling and her assigns._

Reflecting that Andromeda had conquered a fear of hers, Lyall attacked one of his own the next evening. He set everything up in the garden the way that Andromeda had done with the record player and a good bottle of wine. The record store had found what he was looking for as well as some music he hadn't known he would want. As she put the baby down for the night, he put his head in the nursery door.

"Would you mind coming outside tonight? I thought we could listen to some more music. His window is just above the garden. If we open it a bit, we'd be able to hear if he woke up and cried."

"I-well-ok," she said. She followed him down and sat in the chair she had occupied on the previous night. Lyall poured them each a glass and pointed his wand at the record changer. The first record dropped and the arm glided into place.

"How did you do that?" she asked.

He shrugged. "Remus had a couple of helpful spells." Hoagy Carmichael's "Startdust" began to play. "I hope you don't mind," he said. "It's one of your uncle's 78s."

"Not in the least," she said. She sat up and swayed with the music.

"I may have borrowed some others," he said. They watched the stars for a few minutes, with just the music breaking the silence. "Begin the Beguine" started. "Would you care to dance?" he asked.

She stood in answer. He held her a little stiffly, but the music helped him relax. The critical moment was three minutes away, assuming the other charm he put on the record changer held.

The next record dropped, and the player slowed to 45 as he'd charmed it to do. Andromeda heard the first three notes and tried to pull away. "I don't care to hear that one. Surely you realize from the other night... It was our song, and our chances to remember our life together are gone."

"He doesn't have to be right here for you to remember, and it brings him closer when you do, you know." Lyall held her close, but gently. He didn't want to force the issue, just to encourage her to stay with him. "You know he'd want you to remember him, to remember all of your good times together."

"It hurts so much, and I get so mad. If he had just stayed..."

"Then maybe you could have saved him, or maybe I'd be raising Teddy all by myself in that sad apartment."

She sighed but didn't try to leave. Rather she pulled a little closer. It was the sort of song that a couple would dance to by essentially hugging and swaying. "I don't know how to start to remember," she said.

"Supposing you explain how you had a song at your wedding that was released five years after your daughter was born?"

She stopped moving for a moment. Then she looked up at him with a twisted sort of smile. "It's a bit of a story."

"We have plenty of records and wine, if you'd rather sit and drink while we discuss it."

"Could we stay like this, until this song is over?" She snuggled in a little more. "We had a lot of songs, but this one was special."

"Sure." It was nice, the warmth and _connection_ of human contact. The Gray Man had gone with out it far too much.

She cleared her throat. "I was hours away from being married to Lucius Malfoy when Ted saved me. He helped me sneak out of Hogwarts, and we left Hogsmeade on a motorcycle he owned."

Lyall smiled in spite or himself. "That's a good beginning."

She smiled too. "It was. He brought me to this house, where Uncle Alphard welcomed me, somewhat briefly, and then went to the wedding."

"There was still a wedding?"

"There weren't many people happy about the idea of me marrying Lucius. Ted was aghast, Cissy was furious with me, I couldn't stand the idea, and Lucius was going to make the best of it by getting me pregnant and then cheating on me. So I did what I figured would make the most people happy and would buy me time. I should be ashamed, but I confunded Cissy and then gave her polyjuice, and she married Lucius."

"A marriage is hardly valid under the circumstances."

"Maybe not, but everybody except my parents and old Abraxas Malfoy were delighted with the outcome, and they became resigned to it. Uncle said he'd never seen me look so radiant-talking about Narcissa polyjuiced to look like me, of course." She sounded a little wistful.

"Anyhow," she continued, "I needed to be away from things, and Ted was going to the Continent for the summer as his gift from his family for completing school. He was going to ride his motorcycle around and sleep in a tent. Since I was already of age, I had access to the family trust fund that belonged to me, so I got us a proper wizarding tent, we added a sidecar to the bike, and went to Europe together."

The song finished, and he let her go back to her chair although it left him feeling cold and lonesome. "A trip through Europe on a motorbike? That has a certain dash and romance to it."

She sipped her wine and smiled. "Not much romance, certainly at first. Oh, Ted was head over heels, or so he claimed, but mostly we just had a lot of fun. There was a dancing craze somewhere in France and we learned how to dance to the older music. Then we were in-or near-Barcelona."

"Sangria and flamenco dancing?"

She nodded. "We found ourselves among wizarding folk who taught us the flamenco. They gave us a push, I suppose. Maybe some light potions and charms were involved, or maybe not. When we went to bed that night, we couldn't help ourselves."

"It's quite a thing to be young and in love."

Andromeda leaned over and fixed him with her stare. "Remus told us how you and Hope met. You cut quite a romantic figure yourself, you know."

He felt himself go quite red and reached for his glass.

"Anyhow, that was 1972. We came back and stayed in a flat Ted had taken for his first year of Magical Law Enforcement training. There was just enough room for the two of us, since I'd be out training half the time too. It was a Muggle flat and had one of those telly things. Ted was obsessed with that Olympic sports event going on. He had it on whenever he was home, and I got so used to it, I'd turn it on even when I was home alone.

"Do you remember that year? We'd ridden past the Olympic Village in Germany when we were there. It was so beautiful and peaceful. Anyhow, from what I ever made out, one group of muggles was terribly angry with another group of muggles, just for existing. They kidnapped the athletes from the group they hated so much, made a lot of demands, and ended up killing them on one of those air-train things. Just because they existed."

She put her glass down and pulled her knees to her chin. Lyall found himself sitting sideways on his lounge chair leaning forward. "I recall that event."

"It was too close to home, far, far too close. That was exactly what my family would do to Ted. They would kill him, just for existing. The next thing I knew, I was in the bathroom, throwing up for what felt like hours. Ted came in to clean me up, and I looked at him and knew two things."

"You couldn't marry him."

"If there was a public record, they would somehow trace it back and figure out where we were living. Our marriage would be his death sentence. The other thing I knew was that I was pregnant."

He considered the story. "It stands to a certain amount of reason. But you did get married eventually?"

"We waited until the Dark Lord fell in late 1981. We filed for a marriage license straight after leaving the courtroom where my sister was sentenced to Azkaban. Does that sound cold?"

"It should, but we all know about your sister." He thought a moment. "Wouldn't there have been a record about your daughter?"

She smiled. "Children's records are not public, and can be sealed if the parents wish it. It would have got tricky by the time she got to Hogwarts, but we didn't end up having to worry about that."

They listened to Nat King Cole sing "Smile." The last record fell, this time another 45. _Sun is shinin' in the sky; There ain't a cloud in sight..._ Andromeda's forehead wrinkled and then she said, "I know this one. My daughter and your son used to play it a fair bit last year."

He nodded. His eyes and nose suddenly itched. Clearing his throat he said, "Remus used to play this on the morning after the full moon. He said-ahem-he said that the day after a full moon was always a sunny day with a blue sky."

She came over and sat next to him so she could take his hand. "And indeed it is." They sat in silence while the record played.

 _Mister blue sky please tell us why_  
 _You had to hide away for so long, so long_  
 _Where did we go wrong?_

A/N: Musical citations for this chapter include Little River Band's "Reminiscing" again, and ELO's "Mr. Blue Sky". The other songs are more or less mentioned by name.


	10. Mood Indigo

_Disclaimer: The characters here and the world they inhabit are the creation and property of JK Rowling and her assigns._

There was something almost beautiful about the harmonic cacophony that comprised the House-elf memorial service. Lyall came to the place at the time he was instructed and joined Andromeda and Harry where they stood to the side. The three were simply witnesses to something that wasn't quite in a language they knew and didn't have a discernible beginning or end. There was a sort of musicality about it as well as almost a ballet as the small boxes were laid in the ground and the earth replaced.

A point in time came when the elves came and surrounded Andromeda, thanking her for the honor of having their families in the Black plot. One or two asked to work in Mistress Black's house, and she said she would discuss it at the reception. Andromeda and Harry had arranged for refreshments at the Grimmauld Place house, and pops of Disapparation started to be heard. Harry was one of the first to leave. Lyall and Andromeda decided to wait until the cemetery had cleared out in case any details remained.

"Well, Miss, I see you continue to go against your own family in favor of lesser forms of life."

Lyall watched Andromeda's face blanch. Then she straightened her posture and looked a little taller as she turned to address the speaker. "Mother, I've done nothing wrong." He turned and looked at what had become of one of the women he'd known as girls at Hogwarts. Druella Rosier had been very pretty, and Druella Black was still quite handsome, but lacked the loveliness she'd somehow passed on to her daughter. "How did you know to find me here?"

Druella waved a hand. "A person cannot have breakfast any more without hearing about the wonderful Mistress Black." She leaned in and frowned. "You've gone against generations of family tradition."

"I've been over the records, mother. The Blacks who laid out this plot always intended for this section to belong to their family House-elves."

"Your Aunt Walburga is probably turning over in her grave."

"Shall we dig her up to check? I think I have the magical authority..."

"You were always one to say something inappropriate..." Druella switched to something else. "I see you've picked up with a new wizard. Hello, Lyall, it's been a long, very long time, hasn't it?" To her daughter, "He's a little old, isn't he?"

Andromeda sighed, "Well, we can't all seduce 13 year olds, mother, and anyway, Lyall is not here as though we're on a date. He's my grandson's grandfather on the other side. Surely you knew that."

Druella's eyes narrowed and she hissed, "Your father and I are not part of this conversation. Since you removed yourself from the family tree, your progeny is no concern of mine, and anyway, I wasn't that much older."

"I'm clearly not removed from the family tree according to the spells established in the old days, and therefore my progeny matters, too."

"We're not sure you're really the head. The family is sure something is amiss, and the lawyers are looking into it."

It was Andromeda's turn to nod. "And until such time as your lawyers find an error, I'm the head, and I'm sure you've noticed the family property recognizes me as such. I have no intention in interfering, mother, unless truly necessary. Sirius left Harry the London house, so it needs to be made ready for its future. And you were of age, Mother. _Really._ "

Druella's eyes narrowed in a way Lyall found familiar since living for a month and a half at Andromeda's house. "Narcissa was right and there's no talking to you." She went through the cemetery gate and then they no longer saw her.

"I'm sorry about that," said Andromeda. "I wish I could say her animosity was all about Ted, but I never pleased her when I was engaged to Lucius, either."

"I remember her from Hogwarts," said Lyall. "I don't know if there was anything that ever pleased a Rosier."

Andromeda turned with an impish smirk on her face and they shared a laugh until they noticed a young man walking toward them. He was a slender young man, very fair and quite blond. He looked a bit nervous but determined. As he reached them, he cleared his throat.

"Aunt Andromeda?"

She peered at him in confusion and then took a deep breath in recognition. "You must be Draco!" She reached with both hands to shake one of his. "How is your mother?"

He blushed and mumbled. "Mother's fine. She thinks you're wrong about pretty much everything. They couldn't stop talking about this memorial service, which is how I knew where to find you today. I need to talk to you as the head of the family."

Andromeda glanced sideways at Lyall. "And I just told my mother that I wouldn't interfere in family business any more than I need to." She turned back to Draco. "Tell me all about it and we'll see if I can figure out a way to help." She looped her hand through his arm and they walked toward the entrance gate.

Draco had likely been taught to offer his arm to ladies; at least he took her familiarity in stride. He cleared his throat again and started in. "With dad in Azkaban, mother is feeling pressure to 'see me settled' as she calls it."

Lyall watched Andromeda reach for her pearls. "Oh dear," she said, "I hate that expression."

"She's trying to make a contract between me and Pansy Parkinson for marriage."

"You're awfully young, and I take it Pansy isn't your first choice?"

"I don't think so, no."

" _Is_ there a first choice?" Draco blushed, and she didn't push it. "I see. So if, as head of the family, I were to direct that, for example, you couldn't be contracted until you were twenty-one, and that in the intervening time you needed to go on dates with at least three young women, would you be able to meet the terms of that arrangement?"

He nodded. "We're hoping that father will be out of prison soon, so by the time I'm twenty-one many things could happen."

Andromeda patted his arm. "Tell your mother that I suggest this. Hopefully we won't need to do anything official."

He smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Aunt Andromeda." He turned and started walking away.

"Oh, and Draco-" he turned back and Andromeda continued- "if she balks, point out to your mother that your father wasn't ever contracted to marry her. If she gives you the slightest trouble after that, send me an owl and we'll fix it all up properly." He looked curious, but he nodded and went on his way.

"Well," said Andromeda to Lyall, "That's more of my family than I can stand in one outing. It appears that everything is properly clear here at the cemetery. Shall we go to Harry's house?"

* * *

It rained for the next several days, and one evening they finished their various daily tasks to find themselves in the sitting room with the record player. Lyall brought down a stack of Alphard's records and Andromeda looked through them and put a few on. He heard the opening strains of "Begin the Beguine" and stood to take her hand. She quickly pulled out her wand with her other hand and shifted some of the furniture.

"Foxtrot?" he asked.

"It's your choice. As the gentleman, you lead," she answered, before looking at him and saucily adding, " _on the dance floor_."

He laughed, and they both made a couple of false starts before getting properly started.

"Speaking of your leadership of the household..."

"Hmm?"

"Did you choose from the offers you received?" Several House-elves had surrounded her at Harry's house, offering to serve "Mistress Black at Black House," as they said it.

"I hate to form that sort of bond. It doesn't seem right. Harry's friend-you know the one with the hair?"

He nodded, "Hermione."

"Yes, that one. She's working out a way I can pay one or perhaps a few of them in turns. I don't have much money to spare for that, but perhaps we can come up with something equitable. I can _not_ own them, not after my own experiences."

"Which ones, then?"

"The little one called Whisper for sure. Kreacher seemed to trust her the most, and in speaking with them, she seems the most competent. In fact, she insists on coming over tomorrow to see if we suit."

"I can probably add more to the budget if it's wanted. It sounds like a good idea, with Harry and his friends in and out of the house, and Teddy becoming more active."

The record changed to something a little slower. He recognized "Moonglow" and although she moved to dance closely, he stiffened his spine and forced them into a more proper stance.

"They used to tell my generation at Hogwarts that we need enough space for the Fat Friar between us," he said in a confidential tone.

"Mmm hmm," she answered with a small laugh without looking up. "Us, too." She sounded a little choked.

"Is something the matter?" He used his right hand to tip her chin up and saw tears in her eyelashes. "My dear, what is it?"

She shrugged and quietly said, "It's nothing, really. I didn't realize it would hit me like this. At least, it's not for me to cry over it."

He tipped his head down to catch her eye. "You can tell me."

"It's just that I've always associated this song with Remus, even when he and my cousin were kids coming over in search of an extra meal. I mean, here he was, he had this big problem in his life, but he handled it so smoothly, as if it was just seasonal allergies or something. He was always so cheerful about it."

Fat Friar be damned, he pulled Andromeda close. Hypocritically, he couldn't let her see the tears in his own eyes. "That's down to Hope, I suppose. She was able to accept that not only was her son magical but that he also had this terrible condition. Even before there was a reliable Wolfsbane potion, she was after me to find books she could look through to find ways to make it as easy as possible on him, and there was always a celebration the day after the full moon. She was just as her name describes... full of hope. She was sure that new and better ways to manage the lycanthropy would come along if not cure it entirely."

"Oh, that's lovely!" she said.

"It really is... or was."

"I think it still is. Surely they're together, now."

"You may be right," he said.

"Moonlight Serenade" came on next and he found that, given the way she was essentially hugging him, he could tuck his chin into the top of her head.

* * *

A/N: The Black Family Tree is full of cringeworthy information. There is a lot of discussion in the fandom about several fathers being quite young when their firstborn children are born. I think most of the time we're supposed to ignore the dates, but it suits me to acknowledge them this time around.


	11. Deep Purple

_Disclaimer: The characters here and the world they inhabit are the creation and property of JK Rowling and her assigns._

Whisper, sometimes called Whispy or Whisp, fit right into the household. She doted on young Teddy, who smiled adoringly at her when she worked within his line of view. Her attitude toward Andromeda was almost worshipful. The two had a few difficult moments at first when Andromeda insisted on payment and threatened the elf with clothes, but once the terms of their arrangement were worked out to mutual satisfaction, they formed a seamless management of the household. Perhaps it was past memories of working with House-elves coming to the surface that enabled Andromeda to easily make the adjustment. Even Harry Potter did well with the new household member, chatting with her as he rolled around on the floor with Teddy and cheered on the ever-improving attempts at crawling.

Lyall had the most trouble. He was not used to small beings popping in and out of his bedroom as he undressed in the evenings, ready to take his clothes to the laundry. She had a sense of what he was doing and in an effort to get everything the instant it was discarded, would appear before he was finished. After several days of embarrassment and frustration, he finally explained to the elf that he'd prefer to wait until his entire bedtime process was complete so that she waited until he was completely ready for her. Once that was accomplished, he found that his life was much easier with her than without her.

In one regard, Whisper was a decided improvement. If nothing else, Lyall had hoped the small elves would take over the laundry. For some reason, it made him feel strange to know that Andromeda was handling his unmentionables, especially when he would watch her put them on the clothes line along with her own. He didn't want to offer to do the job, since his clothes looked so much better when she did them. Besides that, he'd be obligated to occasionally offer to do hers, and he'd rather die than handle some of the items he'd seen on the line.

* * *

It was an overwarm evening in August when Lyall walked into the home Andromeda reluctantly allowed the House-elves to call "Black House." He'd been effectively living there since the war, but it was only within the last week that he allowed himself to call it home. Andromeda had been generous with her space, and he had as much time to himself as he needed or wanted. When he needed companionship, he had the choice of Teddy or Andromeda. Most evenings, there were also Harry and his friends. Ginny, Ron, and Hermione were frequent visitors, and another young chap visited as well, whose name Lyall hadn't picked up yet. He was helping with some of the heavier garden tasks that had gone undone the previous summer, that Andromeda's late husband had always done in prior years.

He let himself into the mud room and from there to the kitchen. It appeared that dinner was bubbling away on the stove. Whisper must be in the dining room.

 _Un bel di_ _vedremo_

He couldn't believe his ears. It was coming from the direction of the study, that had been Ted's but was slowly being transformed into a space where both Andromeda and Lyall could go over papers from home. Several emotions threatened to overcome him as he walked into the hallway.

 _levarsi un fil di fumo_

Rage was winning the battle within him. He stood in the doorway and demanded, "Why did you go through my things?"

"Yours?" she asked. "It was a 78, so I thought it was-oh damn." She moved over to the record player, but he beat her, intending to very carefully remove the needle and then his precious disk from the turntable. Then he looked at her. She was a terrible mess. Her makeup was smudged everywhere, and her eyes looked as though she'd been crying, off and on, for hours. Instead of removing the record, he took her hand and led her to sit down in a love seat they'd found in the attic and moved downstairs.

"What is it, my dear?"

"Ted left me."

He winced at the pain that sounded as raw as if it had happened that afternoon. Ted had left her months ago, it must be... "It was a year ago today?"

"Yes. I wanted to just listen to something that wasn't frivolous. For some reason I thought since it was a 78, it was Alphard's. I forget."

He should be flattered, perhaps, that she didn't think of him the same way as her uncle, but there was something more important going on. "Like Butterfly, you're still waiting on the hill for him to come back."

"Yes."

 _"Piccina mogliettina,_  
 _olezzo di verbena"_

He sang along with it, although in a lower key. Then he had to stop. Hope had been so beautiful, but more than that, she'd been the best part of himself.

"Heh," Andromeda laughed without mirth. "He did call me his dear wife, but I'm not sure I'm anyone's orange blossom. Anyhow, I'm sorry I went through that stack of records."

He swallowed hard. "It was Hope's, actually. It was-you know she was a classically trained soprano?"

"I'd heard that."

"It's the last thing she ever sang for me in full voice."

She looked like she was going to be sick and covered her mouth. "Oh, Merlin, how horrible of me."

"It was an honest mistake, I suppose."

"I'm sorry, really."

"I shouldn't have yelled at you."

"I would have yelled at you. I did yell at you."

Another record dropped. If Andromeda had chosen anything from _La Boheme_ , Lyall would have to kill her. "Nessun Dorma" was fortunately a fairly innocuous choice. Andromeda, seeing him tense and then relax observed, "Perhaps I'd better stop playing this particular stack."

"What else is in it?"

"A Chopin Nocturne, La Clair de Lune, some Offenbach..."

"Any more Puccini?"

"There wasn't any in the box."

He thought for a beat. "That may not have been my box after all." He leaned back and took her hand in his as they sat. "Tell me about your last day together."

She turned slightly on the love seat and smiled. "I will if you tell me about Hope."

* * *

Andromeda, not wanting to make the same mistake again, insisted that they sort through their various record collections that weekend. It would be a good step forward, she averred, toward clearing the room out and making it a room for both of them to use. She also observed that even if many of their things would be necessarily intermingled by sharing the house, it would be good to know whose things were actually whose.

It turned out that there were several duplicates between Alphard's and the Lupins' collection, and a few other duplicates between the various Tonks collections that were now sorted and compiled onto a single bookshelf in the study. As they finished Andromeda handed Lyall the box of Hope's records. "Perhaps these should be kept in your room. I think Uncle had an old Victrola that will certainly play the 78s."

"That doesn't seem right." He indicated the bookcase full of records she had left for anyone to hear.

"Music-at least this music-was different for the two of you. You're still grieving, and maybe you need to listen to them alone before you're ready to share the experience."

"I think what happened the other day was better for me than what I've been doing the past nine years. It won't-" He looked through and took out most of the records, leaving just a couple in the box. "You may be right about just these few. The others can be mixed." He took the box upstairs and brought down one last record that hadn't been with the others.

Andromeda stared at it. "Where was that?"

"On one of the nightstands, leaning against the wall."

She nodded thoughtfully, "Oh, of course. I've seen it plenty of times there, but never really noticed it. She pressed the palm of her hand against her mouth and breathed in deeply.

"What is it?"

"He kept saying 'Adios' when he was dying. I didn't know what he meant. All this time..."

"He wanted you to listen to the song 'Adios.'"

She put the record on the turn table and turned it on, then gently placed the needle in the groove. The baritone saxophone filled the room, and Lyall came to lead her into a complicated foxtrot that needed to avoid empty boxes and furniture. "I saw the _Prophet_ clipping of his obituary somewhere recently. It said there was a sudden brief illness?"

"Aunt Walburga poisoned him."

"Her own brother?"

"They were trying to get to me and Nymphadora and sussed out that we were living in his house. Thank goodness they didn't realize Ted was still in the picture. Uncle went to a family dinner at the London house and came home dying. He knew as soon as he tasted his salad what had happened, that it was something Aunt Walburga had made. Only she knew the antidote. He looked at her and she smiled in that way she had. After she informed him of the terms of getting the antidote, that the family wanted me and my child, he left without eating another bite and came home."

"This house was under Fidelius?"

"Oh yes, and he flatly refused to give her any information. While he was still able to talk, he told me that he might have given in if were only Ted and me. We were capable enough to take our chances. He couldn't let Nymphadora be hurt. If they didn't try to kill her, making her some sort of pet or slave would be even worse."

"What could they have done with her?".

"It's hard to say. I think they would have tried to manipulate her so that she would have used her abilities for their purposes. They tried it with me when I was just old enough to control it, but I suppressed it to the extent that my ability is pretty minimal, although I suppose with practice... It's not really that hard."

"You're a metamorphmagus?" It hadn't occurred to him, but it made sense.

"She had to get it from somewhere."

"So you can change your appearance?"

Without warning, her hair went from brown curls to blonde waves, just as Hope's hair used to look. He closed his eyes. "Don't-"

She stepped away from him, tripping over one of the boxes. He held her up and opened his eyes. She was back to Andromeda.

"I'm sorry," she said as she picked her way to the love seat. "I don't know-I think I wanted-" she shrugged. "That was a terrible thing to do."

He sat heavily next to her, and because he didn't want to look at her, he pulled her head to his shoulder and rested his over hers. There must be a way to turn the conversation away from where it had been going. "Did he suffer long? Alphard, I mean?"

"He asked me to bring him some tea and by the time I had it ready, he'd gotten himself into bed. The pain was pretty bad for a little while, but mostly he just got less and less _here_ , until he was completely gone. Walburga Black had that much humanity in her, I suppose."

"I'm sorry."

"Thank you. You know, I haven't really faced his death completely. We still need to clean out the closets, don't we?"

"There's no rush. You've seen what little there is to my wardrobe."

There was another voice at the doorway, "Dinner's... Oi, they're getting to be as bad as Mum and Dad!"

Lyall looked up to see Ron Weasley retreating down the hall.

Andromeda was pulling away, somewhat abruptly. Her face was a shade of pink that Lyall doubted was due to her morphing abilities. "I forgot to mention the younger ones are here playing with Teddy and will be staying for dinner."

That was as he surmised, but he was more curious about something else. "What did the lad mean by that?"

Andromeda made herself busy putting the record away in just the right spot on one of the shelves and didn't turn to look at him. "I haven't a clue." For some reason, perhaps the fact that what he could see of her face was redder than before, he wasn't sure that was true.

 _A/N: "Un bel di" is an aria from the opera Madame Butterfly_


	12. Tickled Pink

_Disclaimer: The characters here and the world they inhabit are the creation and property of JK Rowling and her assigns._

Some of the final work done around Hogwarts in the few weeks before it would reopen for classes involved a half-starved wyrvern that had been kept in a cave near Hogsmeade for some Death Eater's purpose and only found in August. The poor animal was quite hungry by then as poor Irving Johnstone quickly discovered before the Gray Man and other Magical Creatures experts got it under control. A trip to St. Mungo's was in order, and after Irving was bandaged for his trip, the Gray Man took him by side-along apparition.

Choosing to skip the emergency ward, the Gray Man took Johnstone up to the pediatric floor. He was rewarded by seeing Andromeda, writing in a folder at the main desk. She looked up and smiled. Lyall found that he couldn't help smiling back.

"Is this a social visit?" she asked.

"No," he replied. "Johnstone, here, has a nasty bite from a wyrvern."

Andromeda led the way to an exam room. "He's a bit older than my usual patient, but not by much. How long have you been working in the Magical Creatures Bureau, Mr. Johnstone?"

"Just a year, and my name is Irving, Ma'am."

She started unwrapping the bandages put in place in Hogsmeade. "And what sort of wyrvern was it?"

"I didn't see, Ma'am."

Lyall cleared his throat. "Scotish hightail."

Andromeda nodded as she ran diagnostic spells over the knee. "All right. With that kind, you have to look out for certain infections and fever, but it doesn't appear that it's a problem at this time. We'll give you a potion that should run off any possibility, just to be safe. Mind you take all of it, Irving. When I let you leave, I don't want you back again sick." She looked Johnstone in the eye.

"Yes, Ma'am."

"OK, there's a potion to take to repair the tissue, and then a Mediwitch and I will be casting spells to fuse it together, and then there will be a light mixture of skele-gro to repair the bone damage. On top of that, there will be the disinfecting potion that you will take for the next seven days."

As she said all of this, she gave Irving a potion for his pain and held his hand until he dozed off. Then she pulled Lyall into the hallway.

"I know he's a bit old for you, but I felt more comfortable bringing him to someone I know."

"That's quite all right," she said. "In another three weeks, after school starts we'll have cases of various illnesses, but right now we're not too busy."

"Thank you."

* * *

Lyall spent the rest of the afternoon making sure the wyrvern was settled in the preserve where it belonged. Then the paperwork started. Fire-breathing creatures had special paperwork that needed to be filed in a couple of extra places due to the property damage they caused. Then there was an accidental injury report. After that there was a hospital report to begin. Finally, there was a report concerning the lost work days and the appropriate paperwork to file with the Health and Safety Executive department at the Ministry. He filed everything except the HSE reports and took those home in his briefcase.

As he passed the sitting room, he noticed that Ginny and Harry were playing with Teddy. Some sort of game involving stacking blocks and letting them fall to shrieks of hysterical delight from the baby. Lyall continued on to put his briefcase in the study, where there was a guest. Andromeda was sitting on the love seat, twisted around to her right with her elbow on top of the backrest and resting her head in her hand. He could tell by the robe that her companion was a Ministry employee but couldn't see the face. She saw him walk in and stood up. "Lyall! Dinner is almost ready and we have company."

Her guest likewise stood and turned. Lyall took a step backwards as he recognized Kingsley Shacklebolt. "Minister! This is an honor."

"I hope you don't mind. I heard about the wyrvern and visited young Mr. Johnstone. Healer Black invited me to dinner."

A dimple the Gray Man had never seen appeared. "It's Andromeda, Minister." She patted his arm.

He patted her hand with his free hand. "And you know it's Kingsley, Andromeda."

The Gray Man cleared his throat. "I just came in her to put down my briefcase. There are still a few forms to fill out. How is... ahem... how is young Irving?"

Andromeda smiled. "He's doing splendidly. His knee knit back together just right and the bones were almost healed when I came home. We're keeping him overnight until that's completed and he can go home tomorrow. He should get a quick diagnostic check the day after that in the Ministry clinic but he should be ready to work by then."

"And he's comfortable?"

"Oh yes," rumbled the Minister. "When I visited, he hadn't quite come around from his pain killer yet. He was asking the Mediwitch for a lolly."

Andromeda tilted her head toward the Minister and her eyes sparkled. "I guess Lyall was right to bring him up to peds after all."

"Mistress Black..." No one had heard the House-elf pop into the room.

"Quite right, Whispy. Shall we head into dinner?" Andromeda looped her arm through Kingsley's and led him toward the dining room. The Gray Man followed.

* * *

"...Ted got really irritated at that point and asked, 'Was I supposed to cast an _Incendio?_ ' at which point the wand in his back pocket lit his pants on fire, and..."

Andromeda joined the Minister at that point, "... that's why Moody always told people never to keep their wands there."

The table erupted in laughter, although the Gray Man didn't join in full-heartedly. Whispy quietly walked past, gathering the last of the dessert dishes and refilling coffee cups.

"No more for me, thank you," said Kingsley. "Well, Andromeda, this has been the most relaxing evening I've had in ages. Thank you. As always, your home is charming and your little friend Whisper has made us the best meal I've had in over a year." Two little pointy ears turned pink at that.

Kingsley stood up at that point, and Andromeda did too. "Let me walk you to the door," she said.

Harry and Ginny picked up Teddy from his high chair and went toward the stairs to the nursery. There was nothing to do other than head to the study and that HSE form. The Gray Man went through the back hallway, not wanting to intrude. Even so he could hear soft murmurings and laughter spill out into the evening. He pulled out his form and started looking at it, writing notes to himself on a parchment to the side.

After a few moments, Andromeda slipped into the room, a gentle smile on her face. She sighed and was suddenly all business. "I was supposed to show you how the household accounts are set up, right?"

"We don't have to do that tonight."

"Nonsense. It's past time I introduced you to them. I may need to be away from home for a night or two once the kids are in school and the flu season begins. Plus, it's important to me to be as transparent as possible. I feel a little guilty taking money from you, and I want you to know exactly what I'm doing with it."

"I trust you, and it's a fair price for my room and board."

"Nevertheless..."

And so they dug in. She kept a record of it all in a ledger so that all of the bills could be noted. The money Lyall had added to the budget was also shown, down to every knut. Lyall knew she would have everything set up in a straightforward and clear manner, and he could see that even with the addition of Whisper, she was keeping things efficiently and comfortably.

"Everything says 'Andromeda Black,'" he observed as she completed the bank drafts that would be sent to settle the month's bills.

"Yes. By the time we got married, I'd been using my maiden name professionally and legally for so long that it was more trouble to change it. Socially I always was part of Ted and Andromeda Tonks, but never officially."

"I see. So when the House-elves call you Mistress Black, they're not wrong."

"Exactly."

* * *

The accounting done, Lyall went around to his desk. He took out his HSE forms and worked through them as she pulled out a journal with a new technique for handling a particular childhood ailment. Every so often he asked her a question but at one point didn't get an answer. He looked over at her desk. Her hair, which had been efficient and neat at the hospital, was now slumped over her desk with soft brown curls covering her head and most of her face. The love seat would be much more comfortable, he thought, and he could use a minute or two of stretching his legs. He walked over and picked her up, hoping he hadn't underestimated his strength.

"Hmm... mub mub..." she settled against his chest and he considered that she wasn't terribly heavy. Besides it was just a few steps to the love seat, where he set her down and she rolled into a position he hoped was comfortable. He stayed kneeling by her, thinking about the evening. She and the Minister had been quite close together, and she had acted in a way that he'd not seen in all the horrible events of the last year. Had she insisted upon showing him the books because there was going to be a change?

Just then she opened her eyes. Before he could move, she reached up and put an arm around his neck, pulling him down and kissing his cheek. Then she sighed happily and fell deeper into sleep. He stood up and backed away. Even though her eyes opened, she hadn't been awake at all.

It was perhaps an hour later when Harry knocked at the door frame. "Do you have a minute?"

Lyall slid the almost-finished form into his briefcase and leaned back. "Certainly." He moved one of the chairs close to his desk for Harry to sit in so they could talk without disturbing Andromeda. Then he went to get them each a drink. Tonight's choice from Alphard Black's incomparable cellar was a scotch whiskey. He considered the strength of the drink and Harry's age before adding some water to his drink.

He handed Harry his drink and they both sat down. "I just-it's that you're as much like parents as anyone in my life right now," the young man said.

Lyall was honored and said as much. "The Weasleys have certainly looked after you. I would have thought you would have talked to them."

"They've been great, really, and I'll be talking to them as well," Harry answered quickly. "This is something where their own opinions, and how it all would affect Ginny and Ron, might change what they would say. I don't want any chance of that to affect what I decide or how I feel about them after it."

Lyall nodded. "I see. What is it, then?"

"Minister Shacklebolt offered me the opportunity to skip my seventh year and go straight into Auror training."

"I suspect Andromeda would advise you against that." Lyall spoke very quietly, watching the love seat as he did.

"I'm pretty sure the Weasleys would as well. What do you think?"

Lyall sipped his drink. "What would you learn at Hogwarts that would advance your career?"

"That's the heart of it. I might do better in potions, but in every other course of study, I'm pretty sure I'm ahead."

"What do you _want_ to do?"

"They need Aurors now."

"That's not what I asked, Harry. It's not your responsibility to fix that problem, although if you want to take advantage of the opportunity that gives you, it may be to your advantage. Is there any possibility that you'll want to change your course of study?"

"Since I met Tonks, and the rest of the Order of the Phoenix, since Remus told me about my parents, every thought I could spare for my future has been that I want to be an Auror. That hasn't changed. And this is why I"m coming to you, sir. With all of them gone, you're the closest thing I have to asking my own parents. Sometimes you sound like Remus, who was a major part of their lives."

Lyall had to swallow hard. "I'm honored that you put that trust in me."

"So what do you think they would tell me?"

"I have no idea, but I think, if you're leaning that way, you might go ahead with the Auror training. You have the opportunity. You can change careers later. It will be harder than for someone with N.E.W.T.s and full accreditation, but I suspect even that will pose fewer challenges for you than it would someone else. At least that's what I would tell my own son."

Harry sipped his scotch. He swallowed with difficulty, frowned at the drink, and then took another sip. This one went down better. "Is it wrong to just do what I want?"

"I don't think so, no."

"I agree with Lyall," said Andromeda from the love seat.

"There you go," said Lyall.

"I would advise you against that," she said firmly. She got up, brushed herself off, tossed her hair back, and walked over to the drink cabinet.

Harry grinned, clearly amused. "She agrees with what you said she would think."

"I got that," said Lyall wryly.

"There are many reasons for keeping you away from something like the Aurors, Harry," said Andromeda. "You're so young and it's so dangerous. Teddy loves you dearly, and it's so dangerous, and... I've become fond of you, and I don't know what I'd do if I lost someone else to something so dangerous." She poured herself just a bit and downed it, then put both her glass and the bottle down.

"Everything within me screams that I should use every art I know-and being raised a Black I know quite a few-to keep you away from the Auror Corps and as safe as possible." She walked over and leaned down to look Harry in the eye. "I've already had this argument more times than I care to admit with Nymphadora," she said quietly. "I wasted far too much of the precious time with my daughter by arguing with her over it. So I know what I rather, Harry, but I also know you feel almost compelled to do this. So I will have to trust you to come safely home to those who love you if it's at all within your power." Her eyes gleamed with moisture.

Harry stood up to hug her. "Thank you, Andromeda."

The young man who in so many ways was still a boy left to take his girlfriend home soon after.

"What are we listening to?" asked Andromeda, taking his seat.

"Dave Brubeck. I wanted something soothing. You were sleeping so well."

She turned pink. "How did I get on the couch?"

He stammered. "I-It-It wasn't very far to carry you."

She reddened even more. "Thank you. It was most kind."

He couldn't keep himself from asking. "You seem quite close to the Minister."

She shrugged. "Ted trained along with him when they first started at Magical Law Enforcement, before Kingsley moved on to the Aurors. We've had him over many times through the years. Then when Nymphadora joined up, Kingsley was one of her mentors."

"I see."

She chuckled and shrugged. "He suggested this evening that he and I run away to Kingston, and I told him my skin would burn too much, and could you imagine what my hair would do in a tropical climate?"

Lyall couldn't resist asking, "What if he had suggested Bath... or Helsinki?"

"He wouldn't," she replied. "He wouldn't suggest London or Glasgow, or anyplace remotely possible. It's not a serious thought."

For some reason this was good news, but the Gray Man was good at not working out why.


	13. Harvest Gold

_Disclaimer: The characters here and the world they inhabit are the creation and property of JK Rowling and her assigns._

Lyall's eyes followed Andromeda's path around the dance floor as she pretended to follow the Longbottom boy, Neville. She had chosen a mambo, and it proved a good choice. None of the younger ones was having an easy time with it. Ginny Weasley was at least following Lyall, but she wasn't exactly doing the steps to a mambo. Harry and Hermione were struggling, but working it through, perhaps because she was counting every step into his ear as they went. Ron Weasley seemed to be having the most fun, doing little more than moving his feet back and forth as his partner, Xeno Lovegood's little girl, floated along the floor to something that may or may not have been the music coming from the record player. Neville might not be the steadiest person on his feet, but it was hard to fault him in comparison to the others at this moment.

Lyall was impressed by how well the dancing was going. Harry and Ginny had come upon Lyall and Andromeda one evening a few weeks earlier and Ginny demanded lessons. There were some difficulties and gaps in what they were able to teach, but on the whole, it had been an enjoyable activity for everyone involved. The young men had constructed the dance floor in the back garden, not too far from the pond. Over dinner one night Andromeda had mentioned in passing that Ted had always wanted to put some sort of summer house or gazebo out there, and a date was set. Teddy even "helped," by sitting in a walker, the tray of which he pounded with great diligence using a toy hammer as the young men worked. Lyall paid for the materials, and within a couple of weeks the floor was done, with plans for the rest of the structure to be added during some future vacation. Andromeda, when it was shown to her, said, "Well, it's bigger than we ever envisioned, but it makes a nice dance floor."

This evening was a sort of dinner dance arranged by Andromeda. Tomorrow night Molly Weasley would have a big family dinner to send off the students headed to Hogwarts, but this was Andromeda's chance to say good bye to the young ones who had been so important to her over the summer. Tonight they fed their young friends and talked about the happy moments they'd had this past summer. Lyall was sorry to see the summer end. Even with his recent losses, he was in a place of greater happiness than he'd known in years. He knew that for Andromeda, the fall would be a lot more lonely and difficult. Harry and perhaps Ron would still come a few times a week, but the house wouldn't be full of young people sounds the way it had been for the last two months.

The mambo ended and Ginny returned to Harry. The next record fell. Lyall had been waiting for this one and crossed the floor to take Andromeda's hand as the Benny Goodman orchestra's drums started their demanding beat. She smiled and joined her other hand with his, too. One-step-two-step-rock-step, one-step-two-step-rock-step, twirl out, twirl back in, one-step-two-step-rock-step. He gave her a certain signal and they lifted their joined hands above their heads and stepped through, then slid back, still holding one hand. They danced at arm's length for a moment and then he spun her in so that she was in his arms, her back to his front. Lyall could stay like this forever. Andromeda, with her hair softly flowing around her head, wearing a floral dress that swirled around her calves, seemed like magic itself. He spun her back out and they started all over again.

The younger folk put the Weird Sisters on the record player and the older folk sat down. As usual, they had their lounge chairs and something to drink between them. Tonight was butter beers. "I'm going to miss them," she said to the rim of her bottle.

"They'll be back."

"I know. Harry will be here twice a week, which will be good. He still needs to eat better. And Neville, dear boy, will come at least once a month to help me get this garden ready for the winter." She put her drink down and looked over at him. "And I'll have you."

"That goes both ways," he said. "I know we're in mourning, but I feel like I've come back to life since..." he couldn't say since he'd met her. There was something wrong about that even if it was true... "Since I've been staying here."

"I'm glad you feel that way," she said. She sat up and reached over to press his hand.

They watched the young adults dance to the Weird Sisters for a few minutes and then Luna put on a different record. Neville jumped into the middle of the dance floor.

 _So tell me what you want, what you really really want._  
 _I'll tell you what I want what I really really want._

Ginny sang and danced along with him as it continued, with Hermione joining in.

 _If you wanna be my lover, you gotta get with my friends._  
 _Make it last forever, friendship never ends._

Harry and Ron fell all over themselves laughing to the side. Eventually they joined in too, and the song ended with something that looked like a scrum of singing, dancing, and laughing. Lyall and Andromeda applauded and laughed from their seats.

The party broke up not long afterwards. The kids all crowded around Lyall and Andromeda to say good bye and thank you, with promises to write during the year and visit on vacations. The evening had gone just as Andromeda had hoped. "That's what it should have been like when I was younger, too, with carefree evenings that didn't involve conversations to the side about being good pureblood witches and wizards." Lyall squeezed her hand.

* * *

For the next day and a half, Lyall was uneasy. He wanted to enjoy the world again. It was full of color and joy, and yes pain sometimes too. The Gray Man was afraid it would hurt worse before if he let himself be immersed again, but somehow Lyall thought he might be ready. He just needed to get through the pain of losing Hope. The division in his soul caused by his aversion was now worse than facing his grief.

On the evening the Hogwarts Express left London, Harry took Teddy to the Weasleys for the evening. It was Teddy's first major outing without Andromeda, but she knew the Burrow would seem particularly empty that day so she let the two boys go. After a quiet dinner, which Whispy still required them to eat in the Dining Room, they went to the study. Andromeda went to her desk and looked through her briefcase, but Lyall stayed by the door, unsure how to make a request that he had. Finally, she looked up at him.

"What is it?" she asked softly.

He pointed to the record album on his desk. "I haven't been able to face this one. I-I think-well actually it's long past-" He looked at her helplessly. "It's time to face what I've been avoiding."

She came around and picked it up. " _La Boheme_?"

"She-Hope-was in rehearsals when she was diagnosed."

Andromeda slid the vinyl out of the cover reverently and placed it gently on the turn table. The overture played; Puccini could be intoxicating.

She came back around to where he still stood, somehow sensing that even now with the die cast he wasn't sure he was ready for this. He allowed himself to be guided to the love seat. She took a hand in hers and patted it comfortingly, watching him carefully to see if it was a welcome gesture or not. "Was she able to continue?"

"Yes. There were days missed here and there when she went in for preliminary treatments, but they couldn't schedule surgery until after the performances anyway."

Andromeda asked quiet, gentle questions about the nature of the illness and treatments. Sometimes in her professional curiosity she asked questions that were almost clinical. Somehow it helped, by separating the cold facts from the warm person Hope had been.

"And how was the show?"

"Hope was brilliant. A little old for Mimi, but she sang so beautifully."

Andromeda's eyes were dreamy. "I can imagine." Lyall knew she could, somehow. "But it was such bad luck... the coincidence... to play a character who was so ill when she herself..."

"Yes, she was certainly frail, and the fact that she was so seriously ill was not lost on us. At least she didn't die at the end of the opera."

"How much longer was it?"

"A couple of years."

Andromeda squeezed his hand. "They were good years?"

"For the most part. The treatments gave us-well, not enough-but they gave us the gift of time."

"That must have been so precious," she said. Lyall looked at her for a moment and considered the difference between his and Andromeda's loss. Ted had left suddenly, and in the midst of her desperate hope that they could somehow be reunited, he was as suddenly killed. And now it came to him that as bitterly as he had mourned to scarcity of years he'd had with Hope, he'd at least had that time.

"Yes, it was quite precious," he said, now just the slightest bit grateful. "There were bad moments, of course."

"I imagine she lost her hair?" Andromeda unconsciously reached her free hand into her own, perhaps to reassure herself that it was still there.

"That was actually one of the better moments," he recalled. He lost himself in the memory. "She had quite a collection of wigs and was quite delighted to be Turandot one day and Figaro's Susanna the next. Never Mimi again, though."

"No, I can imagine."

"I just miss her so much, even now."

Andromeda could only nod. "Would you like to see her again?" she asked. "I could-"

"No!" It came out harsher than he intended. "I need you to be Andromeda."

"But it would just be-if it could help?"

"I don't know if I can explain it. I need you. Something would be broken if you were her, even for a moment, and I would lose you."

"All right." She smiled shyly and reached for his other hand. "I didn't mean-I don't want to make you uncomfortable." She shrugged and looked at the carpet. "I just want to do something, anything that would be helpful, but maybe I should just leave or something."

"No, please stay."

"All right." She reached around him to pull his head to her shoulder. They settled in comfortably as Musetta described her lifestyle and philosophy. They'd barely moved when Harry and Teddy came home.

* * *

 _A/N: A musical citation is due for "Sing, Sing Sing (with a swing)," written by Louie Prima and done by many, but my favorite version is Benny Goodman's; the dance I describe somewhat poorly above is a Jitterbug or 6-count Lindy. I believe in the UK it was called Lindy Hop. many will know the Spice Girls' "Wannabe." I'm trying to stay pretty much with the canon for most of this, so Harry and Ron are going straight into the Aurors while everyone else is going back to Hogwarts. The chapter ends with them listening to songs from the Puccini opera La Boheme._

 _Since there's already a long author note, I'd like to thank the reviewers who've commented about the story as well as the readers who keep coming by. I wrote this story because a group of friends wanted some fluff, and eventually we'll get there, but mostly just to see how I thought such a relationship would progress, and also because this is the sort of story that happens when one listens to my playlist._


	14. Silver Bells

_Disclaimer: The characters here and the world they inhabit are the creation and property of JK Rowling and her assigns._

For once a season progressed as intended. Fall exploded in glorious color that year. Neville came as scheduled and the garden was put to sleep for winter in good order. Teddy grew in stature and ability, holding his own bottles, sitting up, and chattering away with whomever he could find to converse. He was crawling in earnest now, pulling himself into a sitting position and then trying to use furniture to help him stand.

Harry was growing, too. At eighteen he'd not yet reached his full height. One evening in October, Lyall overheard him asking Andromeda if she'd put any potions into his food. "I'm too tall for my Auror training robes lately, and they were longer than I had expected I would need when I bought them."

Andromeda shrugged and observed, "You never ate as well as you might have for most of your childhood. Now you've had the proper nutrition and time to catch up." The dimple Lyall was learning to like appeared and she added, "If I've _enhanced_ your meals with a little something to encourage the natural growth spurts you've had over the summer, it wasn't a bad thing. You're just about reaching your father's height."

* * *

Late October brought its own sad memories. Lyall and Andromeda accompanied Harry to Godric's Hollow to place flowers on James and Lily Potter's graves. Harry went to the feast at Hogwarts after that. If there'd been no dreadful Halloween, there might not have been a reason to celebrate this past May. It was unfortunate but very likely the truth. Thus were sorrow and joy mixed.

Arriving home with Teddy, Lyall and Andromeda found an imposing looking raptor on the windowsill. It held out its leg as though it couldn't be bothered and investigated the contents of the feed dish Andromeda had laid out for the Daily Prophet owls. Then it shook itself, no doubt to remove any plebeian dust at Andromeda's house, before leaving.

Andromeda opened the scroll and swore profusely.

"What?"

She handed it to him. "It's an invitation to my mother's New Year's party."

"Why is it a problem? It's not as though you have to go."

"Look again. She's sent it in my name. And where does she get off, using an honorific I haven't decided to use?"

 _Lady Andromeda Black, Head of the Black Family_  
 _together with her mother, Druella, and sister, Narcissa Malfoy_  
 _request the honor of your presence_  
 _at the Black Family Hogmany Ball._

"Can't you just not go?"

"If I'm head of the family..." He watched her tap her hand with it as she thought... "I really have to go. It's almost a dare." She peeked under the lid of something on the stove. "Salazar, that smells good."

Whispy walked in. "Mistress..."

"I'm just looking, honest! It smells delicious!"

"Dinner will be ready at the usual time. Young master can have his dinner first."

"You're absolutely right," Andromeda said. She looked sheepishly at Lyall and started summoning the appropriate paraphernalia from various cupboards and drawers.

* * *

Two nights later, Lyall found Andromeda in the library, listening to an odd-sounding song. She was sitting near an open window. An ash tray had some strange herb burning in it. The odor was not unfamiliar, but he couldn't quite place it.

The vocals on the record got louder for a moment, almost wailing.

 _And the sound that you're hearing is only the sound of the low spark of high-heeled boys..._

Andromeda looked up. "Long day?"

"Well, you know, sometimes we find a few more animals than we thought. Today was the opposite. I spent the entire afternoon in Ottery St. Catchpole trying to find a beast Xeno Lovegood swore he saw. There were no tracks, no scat, nothing."

She smiled lazily. "You've got to love his devotion, I suppose."

Lyall pulled a chair close to the window for himself. He had identified the smoke by now. "No cigarette this time?"

She looked over at the smoldering mess in the ash tray. "I won't say I never inhaled, but I have found that while I like the smell of it under certain circumstances, I don't like the way it makes me feel if I actually smoke it. Today I really need it, though. It's the anniversary of losing Sirius... the first time. This song reminds me of those days and Sirius and his friends."

"They all had such a crush on you."

She sat up. "They did NOT."

"Do you think you're the only one to ever give them a home-cooked meal? They spent time here because of you. James used to say that if he could have met you before Ted did, he would have tried to angle in."

"He was madly in love with his Lily almost from the day he got to Hogwarts. Surely my son-in-law had more sense."

"He used to say that he hoped he could find someone like you. And Peter-"

Andromeda held up her hand- "I don't want to know what that creepy man-boy thought of me. I _would_ have to smoke then, and I don't know where the papers are."

Lyall realized what he'd been about to say and reflected that some things are better unknown.

"Anyhow, seventeen years ago, my cousin was sent to Azkaban without a trial or even a proper interview, and suddenly I was alone in the family."

Lyall patted her hand. "That must have been horrible."

The next record featured a fellow describing a great many things he wanted to paint black. "This is an angry song," he observed.

"I'm an angry witch," she answered. "I'm actually pretty full of rage right now."

She stood up and started pacing. "Fate has been unkind to me, you know. My sister got to marry a man my parents adored, and I got a mudblood."

The word shocked him. "But you loved-"

"I'm a disgusting person to let that word out of my lips, aren't I?" She shook her head. "I found that I never really thought in terms of those things, but I lost my family because of it. If I had married Lucius, I would have been miserable. I know I would have, but she got the riches and the approbation, and everyone treated me as though I'd done something unclean. Then Narcissa got to have _her_ baby boy, while Bellatrix decided mine had to die and found a way to attack me. Something about a danger to the Dark Lord. He would have been just Draco and Harry's age. And then while my sister got to protect herself during the battle, I ended up losing every person whom I loved." She raised her face, full of fury, to him. "It's not fair."

Lyall considered a section of the back garden. "Is your son buried in that fenced area?"

She stopped moving and slid her arms around her tummy. "More than just him. Three of them never made it to quite seven weeks; they all had some sort of problem and they just died. Those spots are just the stones, but the babies were real enough to me. You can live a whole life in those few weeks between learning you're pregnant and losing the child. There was one other time I got pretty far along, but Bella found me again. She attacked me in the hospital, said my half-blood was an abomination..." Andromeda sighed... "Remus helped me bury her."

Lyall stood up. "Just a year ago, then?"

She nodded. "Ted never knew. Or maybe he did and that's why he left."

"You have a lot of reasons to be angry with the world." Lyall stepped across the hall to the study and pulled a record off the shelf. He replaced the ones on the turntable. The song started to play, soothing and sad.

 _And now the purple dusk of twilight time_  
 _Steals across the meadows of my heart_

Lyall stood in front of Andromeda, his hands held out in an invitation to dance. She stepped close to him and he felt her relax a little. "I'm not the same, but I'm here," he said.

"I'm not good at making friends or getting people to like me. Inside, I'm an ugly person who uses terrible words."

"When did you last say it?"

"I was a student at Hogwarts."

"I'll risk being your friend. I've done nothing at all for over thirty years, since the day my son was bitten because _I_ spoke out of turn. Does that make me better or worse?"

 _Sometimes I wonder why I spend_  
 _The lonely night dreaming of a song_  
 _The melody haunts my reverie_  
 _And I am once again with you_

"I'm so glad you're here, Lyall. I think you've kept me from going as mad as Bellatrix did when the Dark Lord fell, or like Sirius did when he was stuck in the London house."

"You've been good for me, too."

"I know you said you didn't want it before, but I would become Hope if you wanted me to, or at least look like her."

"I wish you would stop suggesting such a thing."

"Wouldn't it be better if one of us could be with our loved one?"

"And subject you to a sort of slavery? I won't have it."

"I just thought-" she bit her lip. "I'm sorry."

He tipped her face up to look at his. "I appreciate the sentiment. You don't know how much. You know it would never work, though. You can't really be her."

Her shoulders sagged. "I suppose not." She pulled slightly away.

He needed to explain it better. "And in the meanwhile I would lose you. I can't do without you."

"Really?" Her face brightened a little.

"You say you don't make friends well, but you've been my lifeline since the day we became our grandson's caretakers. I can't have her back, but you're the one person who could help me recover from her loss."

She stepped back and raised an eyebrow. "Really? The _only_ one?"

"Who else, in almost a decade, has done for me what you have? Has helped me act like a human again?"

"Teddy?"

He sighed in mock annoyance. Then he kissed her cheek and pulled her close to his chest.

 _Though I dream in vain_  
 _In my heart it will remain_  
 _My stardust melody_  
 _The memory of love's refrain_

* * *

He would watch her rub her pearls at her neck and wish he dared to get her a different necklace for a holiday gift. Perhaps a pretty pendant. He dared not, though. There were strict rules for gift giving when he was being raised. Jewelry was inappropriate for their relationship. At best, he could take Teddy to a shop and get a charm bracelet for her. He found a small wolf for Remus, and a symbol of the ministry for Nymphadora. Then there were charms for a grandfather and grandmother, each hugging a child. Andromeda smiled and put it right on, letting Teddy pat at the charms as they dangled and jingled.

She went very still when she opened his gift to her. She'd remarked one afternoon as they passed a display, that the current version of Goode's _Practical Housekeeping and Wichery_ was too big to be truly useful in a pinch. The abridged edition was easier to carry, but had nothing useful left in it. "The truly best edition was the eleventh," she stated unequivocally. "I was supposed to get one left to me by an aunt, but Bellatrix sent me the covers with a pile of ash between as a wedding gift." Lyall happened to have that exact book in a box full of mementos from his mother, and knew at that moment that it was the gift he would give.

Andromeda opened the box and looked up at him. "I don't know what to say," she finally whispered. "The bracelet is perfect and precious, but this... this is something you give to family."

"You're my family, you and the boy, there." He pointed to the baby who was trying to eat a piece of ribbon.

She knelt up from where she sat on the floor, and moved over to kiss his cheek. Then she went and retrieved the ribbon.

She watched carefully as he opened his gifts, too. Teddy had got him a magical pocket knife. The one he'd had for years had broken during the Wyrvren incident, so he put this one right into his pocket. "I would never use one of these on a creature, of course, but they're dead useful at times."

"There's often a bramble to get through or a net to remove," she suggested.

"Exactly."

He wasn't prepared for his gift from her. It was a photo album. There were pictures from the time since war had ended, filled with the two of them and Teddy, some showing sad faces that were barely managing, but others showing the occasional joy that had started to creep into their lives. Before that was a slim section showing a few snaps of Teddy with his own parents and also pictures of their wedding and pictures showing Nymphadora and Remus during the various stages of pregnancy. The section that stunned Lyall was the first section. It predictably had quite a few shots of Nymphadora growing up, but also included a great many pictures of Remus as a teen and young man, sometimes with his friends, and a few by himself.

"Where did you get these?" he asked in amazement.

"Ted took quite a few of them when those boys came over for various reasons. There were also a couple of boxes in Sirius' things. I didn't even put them all in here. I thought we could look at the others sometime. Maybe you would like to frame one or two."

"That would be...wonderful." He kept looking back at a picture of his son as a young man.

They sat on the floor for the rest of the morning and watched Teddy play with his new toys, going back and forth from the actual toys to the boxes. After a while they moved to the couch. Teddy lost interest in the toys for a few minutes and crawled to them and then pulled himself up on the side of the couch, demanding to be picked up.

Lyall picked him up and put him on his lap with a laugh. "He's already getting so big. I'll miss having him as a baby. I wish there were a way for us to have more grandchildren."

Andromeda looked thoughtful for a minute, bit her lip, and then said, "Well, Harry and Ginny and Hermione and Ron and the others will bring their children to play with us. It will be a few years, but the time will come.

Lyall sighed. "It won't be quite the same, will it?"

"It won't be for them, either, without James and Lily, for example."

"I guess not."

They had an early dinner at lunch time and then the young adults came. They played with Teddy for a while and then pushed the furniture to the walls so they could dance. Over the evening, some of the older friends came too, and Lyall watched Andromeda dance with the Minister as he led Molly Weasley around the floor. Things might never be the same, but if this Christmas set the standard for future ones, there were good things to look forward to.

 _A/N: Music citations go to "The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys" from Traffic, "Paint it Black" from the Rolling Stones, and "Stardust," written by Hoagy Carmichael._

 _Thank you to all the readers and reviewers!_


	15. Jolly Greens

_Disclaimer: The characters here and the world they inhabit are the creation and property of JK Rowling and her assigns._

Andromeda was rather pleased with how she looked on New Year's Eve. "I've seen Mother wear dresses like this all her life," she said half to herself as she looked one last time in a mirror in the hallway. She was stunning in a dark green, almost black strapless dress that swirled around her ankles. Her hair was piled on her head somehow and she wore her pearls around her neck and pearl studs in her ears. Lyall found his mouth growing dry as he stared at her shoulders. He came to himself and settled her robe over those shoulders, hiding them from view. They walked out and Apparated to Midnight Hall.

"I haven't been since Christmas of my seventh year. It looks oddly the same," she observed.

Druella pulled Andromeda in the door. "You were supposed to be here an hour ago. At least you're-Oh Merlin, what are you wearing? Narcissa!"

Andromeda's panicked eyes begged him for help, but there was nothing Lyall could do as her mother and sister dragged her up the stairs.

She came back down in black from head to toe. Her dress was a very full skirt that hid her toes and came up to an impossibly snug midsection that stopped just under her bosom, which was-he searched for the right word- _enhanced_ by her unnaturally tiny waist. Her sleeves were just off her shoulders, which allowed him to stare at them some more. Around her neck was a necklace in jet to match a tiara that was nestled into her curls, with a pendant that hung well down toward the neckline that was lower than he'd ever seen her wear. He tried not to stare at the cleavage that he hadn't before considered. Jet ear rings dangled gently, drawing attention to those shoulders and what he'd never before realized was a very kissable dent between her collar bones. It was her head and face that gave him the greatest pause. Her hair had been transformed into dark, almost black curls, and her face had been transformed as well to heighten her similarities to her older sister, right down to a blood red lipstick that made her look as though she'd recently been feasting on the blood of enemies with her master. If memory served, she looked much like Bellatrix Black had looked, or would have looked if she'd been forced into such a rig.

He suppressed a shiver and walked to the bottom step. "Andromeda?" He held out his elbow and she took it with a satin glove that went almost up to where the sleeve left off. "You don't quite look the way I'm used to."

"They _strongly encouraged_ me to morph." She stopped and panted for a moment. "They said the connection would accept me better if I looked more like my sister. For some reason I wanted to please them."

"Can you breathe?" he asked.

"Not exactly. I didn't recognize this corset, but I think the dress may have been intended for my trousseau. It's at least big enough to cover me. Almost." She tugged at the neckline, clearly uncomfortable with it. She made a face and then smiled up at him, a genuine smile. Suddenly the lipstick wasn't quite as macabre. "As long as I can stay with you, I'm sure I'll manage." She wriggled slightly. "I need to find just the right position-there's a knack to wearing these things-there it is. It will come back to me." She sighed and took as deep a breath as she could. "You know the wizarding dances, I trust."

"After six painful summers of cotillion, I'm not likely to forget."

"Six summers? You got off easy, but the boys usually did," she said absently, her mind already on the line of people her mother and sister expected her to meet. She stepped forward next to Druella and squared her shoulders. "Madam Avery, how kind of you to come..."

He stayed slightly behind her with his hand at the back of her waist. After about a half hour, she leaned back and very gently stretched, managing an almost full breath. "Mother, that seems to be everyone."

"You're terribly out of practice, Andie." Narcissa turned. "Mother, perhaps she should begin the dancing."

"Oh, all right. When the Macnairs get here, you'll have to dance with Winston."

"He's still _alive_?" Andromeda hissed in horror. "He was ancient when I was a teenager," she said in a conspiratorial undertone to Lyall. "And he was very grabby, too."

They shared a smile, and she did a thing where she led him to the ballroom while making it look like he was leading her, since he'd never been to this house. The ensemble was finished tuning and looked expectantly toward her. "Shall we?" he asked. She gave a regal nod and they walked to the head of the line of dancers.

He couldn't resist the temptation to twirl her as they arrived in place, watching the layers of her skirt swirl around her. In the moment before the music started, she placed her hand over her middle. "I hope I don't regret that," she said.

"If you feel ill, I'll rescue you," he responded.

As the escort for the Head Black, Lyall considered it his job to keep an eye on Andromeda and generally look after her. This he did even though she was claimed as the first dance ended for the second. He was inveigled into dancing with someone else, the daughter or niece of a classmate at Hogwarts, he thought. From the daughter or niece he found himself with a widow, and then there was a friend of his mother's with whom he spent a few cheerful moments. Things seemed to be going all right. The smile Andromeda gave her nephew was at least genuine. At some point during the fifth dance, there was something in her posture that suggested she needed a moment. He went to her and led her to the buffet.

"You have to eat something."

"Do you know what's in any of these?" she pointed at the drinks. He shrugged.

A House elf appeared in the space between two tables. "The green one is only one without alcohol, Mistress."

"How did you know what I was looking for?"

"Mistress doesn't want to get dizzy, and Outiss wants Mistress Black to make family proud."

"They called you Outiss?" Andromeda exchanged a look with Lyall.

"Outiss isn't normal staff, Mistress, just for parties."

"Why don't you come to my house tomorrow, then, and we'll see if we can't do something about that?" Andromeda took a bit of the green liquid and then as deep a breath as her dress would allow. She looked longingly at the dessert table and then shook her head. "It will never fit," she whispered.

"Outiss works for Mistress Black?" Andromeda turned to elf who was now gently tugging at her skirt.

"Only if Outiss agrees to Mistress Black's peculiar terms. We'll discuss it tomorrow, all right?"

The elf's smiled brightly and disappeared again. Andromeda smiled too, and then blanched. "Oh, Salazar, there's Winston Macnair. She looked at her dance card. "The next one won't allow his hands anywhere they shouldn't be at least."

Lyall leaned down and whispered into her ear. "Knock 'em dead. If he gets too grabby, do it literally. It shouldn't be too hard."

Andromeda smiled guiltily and tapped Lyall's arm with her fan even as the nonagenarian grasped her elbow.

Five minutes to midnight saw everyone standing near the open doors to the gardens, waiting for the New Year to come in. Andromeda, as Head Black, stood near the front of the crowd, glass in hand. She was expected to make some sort of speech. Druella and Narcissa were at either side of her at this point, with Draco and a few distant relatives close by. Lyall was across the crowd from her during the count down. As they got to zero, she shouted, "My friends and family, let us welcome nineteen ninety-nine!"

"Happy New Year!" It was shouted throughout the house. A few couples kissed. Lyall caught Andromeda's eye and she winked at him with a smile but instantly her face took on a more serious look and she nodded her head toward the entryway and main door. He met her in time to put her cape over her shoulders.

* * *

They arrived home and found the young adults around the dining table, eating a good dinner. Teddy had apparently given up and fallen asleep an hour before. Whisper stood in the kitchen, just out of sight, her eyes beaming. "Oh, Mistress, it feels so good to cook for them!"

"As long as you enjoy doing so, it's fine with me," said Andromeda, "but please don't let them take advantage of you." Turning to Lyall, she said, "Why don't we get that champagne that we have chilling?"

It was a bottle they shouldn't have been surprised to find in Alphard's cellar. He smiled. "I"ve been looking forward to that all night."

"Whisper, could we have the champagne flutes, please?"

"Oh yes, Mistress!"

Andromeda cleared her throat. "I know it's after midnight, but we were unavoidably detained. I thought you'd like a proper toast for the New Year."

As they toasted, all of the young people kissed. Feeling a little awkward, Lyall turned and kissed Andromeda. She gasped with surprise, and then surprised him by kissing back. It was all quite innocent, with closed mouths and very little motion, but it was very, very pleasant. Someone cleared a throat and Lyall pulled away. "I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I don't know what came over me."

"It's quite all right," she replied. She was looking at him intently as though trying to tell him something. He couldn't understand, and the moment passed. She bit her lip and looked away, brightly asking about whether the younger folk needed a place to stay for the evening. They'd already arranged to take the party elsewhere when Teddy's grandparents came home. Soon goodbyes and wishes for a happy new year were ringing out as they went through the kitchen and the floo sprang to life.

Andromeda lowered that dining room lights. Then she sagged against the doorway between the dining room and kitchen. "Whisper, I'd love to help you clear up, but I've got to get out of this dress."

"Is no trouble, Mistress."

Lyall turned and within an instant a black pool of tulle and satin lay on the floor, leaving Andromeda wearing a shift, a petticoat with almost as much tulle as the dress, and what must have been the corset she complained about, tight around her middle.

"Lyall," she gasped, "I really need to get out of this thing this instant. Can you untie it and loosen the back a little? Then I can unfasten the front."

He found where it should have untied but there were no loose strings to tug on. "I don't see..." Then he saw the urgency. Somehow the garment was getting _tighter._ She was wilting against the door frame and he noticed something inside the corset gave, punctuated by a breathless squeak of pain. He put his hand in his pocket for his wand and discovered the pocket knife he'd just received. It wouldn't cut the strings, so he slid it under the fabric and slit it right down the back, allowing the stiff garment to fall to the floor. Without realizing what he was looking at initially, he saw over her shoulder and down the inside of her shift to her navel. Then he averted his eyes, realizing he shouldn't look.

Andromeda, meanwhile, was gasping in great breaths of air. "Oh thank Merlin. I don't know how I stood it all night, but I couldn't do another moment." She blinked at him and then slumped into his arms. He caught her and yelled for the House-elf.

"Lyall?" Harry and Ginny stood in the doorway. "We were checking on Teddy one last time. What happened?"

He nodded toward the corset, which even now was twitching in the dim light. "She needs to go to St. Mungo's. I think it may have cracked a rib."

The two youngsters looked at each other and nodded. "Go," said Ginny. "I'll stay with Teddy."

"And I'll take that to the Ministry and see what it was doing. Where did it come from?"

"Her family dressed her for their party."

Harry nodded as he all but pushed Lyall toward the fireplace. Seeing Lyall's hands were full, he tossed the floo powder in and yelled, "Mungo's A&E!"

* * *

Three hours later, Lyall was sitting next to a hospital bed, holding Andromeda's hand to his lips. The blue tinge was gone from around her mouth and she was starting to seem more comfortable. A knock at the door startled him. He looked up and saw Harry and the Minister.

They waved him down when he started to stand. "How is she?" asked Harry quietly. He went around to the chair on the other side of her and patted her hand.

"It broke two ribs. She's on skelo-gro to repair them, and they're going to monitor her for a day or two in case of lung damage. Her other organs seem okay."

Kingsley dropped a folder on the table that reached over the bed. "This is the preliminary report. The laces were made from Dragon's Snare."

Lyall looked in horror from Kingsley to Harry to the folder and finally to Andromeda. "They were trying to kill her. We left as they were getting ready to put out the lights and start bonfires in the fireplaces for the dances from the ancient times." The middle of the room would have been almost pitch black.

"You'll never prove that," whispered Andromeda from the bed. She spoke clearly, but didn't have enough breath to give her words much volume. She tried to shift her position to sit more upright, winced in pain and gave up. "They'll claim it was one of Bellatrix's old corsets and they had no idea."

Harry huffed. "Are you saying you won't press charges? We have to do something."

Kingsley nodded. "What would you like us to do then, Lady Black?"

A shadow of Andromeda's usual annoyed look crossed her face. "Lady Nothing." She reached her free hand up and tapped the report. "When the final report is ready, have a copy sent to my mother with a letter informing her that the Head Black has a copy of it. Send it Royal Mail Signed For."

Harry and Kingsley didn't stay very long, having wanted primarily to reassure themselves that she would be all right. They both leaned over her to kiss her, and after reassurances that they'd see her during the day, they left.

Lyall stood to help her move to a more comfortable position and noticed a tear falling from the corner of her eye. "What is it?" he asked.

"The only thing she's ever wanted from me is to be gone." She took as deep a breath as she could manage and then turned and looked at him. "My estate is long since in order. Everything goes to Teddy, of course, but we haven't established legal guardianship. If they had succeeded tonight, they might control everything through him."

"Surely the Wizengamot would not reward your murder by giving Teddy to them."

"Stranger things happen all the time in our world, especially since there wouldn't be any proof that they deliberately put me in that thing. We have to make sure our custody of him is absolute and that Harry will get him if we're both incapacitated. I'm not sure we have proper custody of him as it is."

He held her up as she drank some water, then gently helped her lie back down. "The worst didn't happen, but if it's important to you, we'll see a solicitor in a couple of days. I should untangle my own legal affairs, too."

"Thank you." She seemed much easier of mind and closed her eyes. Lyall sat back in his chair and drowsed with her, still holding her hand.

 _A/N: Thank you again for reading, and a special thank you to the reviewers. Son of Whitebeard has been quite faithful, and Kerichi, KrystinaK, and emrldapplejuice have also been quite kind over the last few chapters. Yes, the chapters have gotten longer as the story has gone. I keep thinking of things I wanted to include._


	16. Kaleidoscope

_Disclaimer: The characters here and the world they inherit are the creation and property of JK Rowling and her assigns._

Draco came in the morning. Lyall stood up and reached for his wand. He was no Auror, but he could handle himself in a fight.

"The Minister said Aunt Andie was hurt?" said Draco. "It wasn't me, and it wasn't Mother."

"How can we be sure?" asked Lyall.

"The Minister came to Midnight Hall. He told us what happened. Grandmother was disappointed, but Mother got angry with her. She said that she was going to change the magic at Malfoy Manor so that Grandmother couldn't come any more."

Andromeda sat up. She winced, but this time she was able to do it at least. "She doesn't trust our mother, either?"

"She said she'd had her doubts but this was the last straw. One doesn't spill pure blood, and _Black_ blood is sacrosanct."

Andromeda looked at Lyall ruefully. "That's what Aunt Walburga would have said."

"What did the Minister say?" asked Lyall.

"He gave us a copy of the report, saying that Lady Black had asked him to, but said that if anything happened to Aunt Andie again, he was going to bring Grandmother in for questioning. He said that the way the ministry is currently understaffed, she might get lost in a holding cell indefinitely if that happened."

"He _would_ take my suggestion to an extreme." Andromeda pretended to adjust her pillows while she thought it over and then seemed to decide to let it go, at least for now. Her whole demeanor changed to something lighter. "Since you're here, you can entertain me. You look good today, Draco. How is our project going?"

"I've gone out with three different witches," the younger wizard told Andromeda.

She smiled. "Did you go out with Pansy, just to make _them_ happy?"

"Yes."

"And were the three dates all proper dates according to courting custom?"

"Yes."

Andromeda pointed at the chair on her other side. "Have a seat and tell me about the pretty girl you brought to Hogmany Ball."

* * *

Outiss was waiting when Lyall brought her home.

"They tells me Mistress goes to hospital, and a great todo at Midnight Hall there was, Mistress. Outiss gets Mistress' things and comes straight to Black House."

"My-?" Her hands went to her neck. "Oh, yes, my other dress and jewelry."

Lyall cleared his throat. "I'd best have Harry and Ron take a look at them?"

She blanched. "I suppose that would be a good idea, since it seems the woman who gave me life wants it back." She turned to the House-elf. "I trust Whisper has been showing you things?"

"Oh yes, Mistress."

"Then perhaps we had better come to the study and finalize our arrangements."

Lyall helped Andromeda to the love seat in the study. Then he took the garments from the elf to the Ministry.

"What do you have there?" asked the receptionist.

"It's for Harry Potter."

Ron came out first. "Did something else happen?"

"No, we just have the clothes she changed out of at her mother's home. We want to make sure there's nothing wrong with them."

Harry and Ron looked everything over, casting the standard charm and curse breaking spells, and gave the pearls back to Lyall. "These are fine, but we want to ask the supervisors about the clothing. There's something iffy going on there," said Harry. "We'll get back to you."

"The pearls were more important, anyway," said Lyall. "She looks lost without them."

Harry smiled. "How is she?"

"She's fine, but I'm going to take a couple of days off to keep an eye on her."

"Is it all right if I come over tonight?"

"I'm sure she'll be delighted, even if she's too tired to do much."

"We'll see you then."

* * *

 _And when the broken hearted people living in the world agree_  
 _There will be an answer, let it be_  
 _For though they may be parted, there is still a chance that they will see_  
 _There will be an answer, let it be_

Lyall knew he knew this song, but he couldn't quite place it. He stood in the doorway of the study, watching for a moment. Andromeda was sipping something clear out of a glass and whispering along to the words. There was a sad smile on her face. He couldn't imagine what she was thinking. "How are you?"

She looked up, and her smile became genuinely happy. "I'm happy to be home. I missed my things."

"Is Outiss settled?"

"He's not as experienced as Whispy, but he'll fit in. He sounded eager to help with some of the gardening."

He motioned to her glass. "Should you be drinking that?"

"Sparkling water? There's no medical reason not to, but my taste buds are saying I definitely should not." She smiled acerbically.

He laughed at that. "Well as long as you're starting to feel like yourself." He sat down next to her.

"I am at that. I'll have to beware of my mother, but I don't suppose that's anything new. I do have to be the head of the family, but that doesn't mean I have to pander to her approval or even her love. I haven't needed them for twenty-five years, there's no reason to try to make them my family now."

"The world you built here is much more of what a family is. You don't have to be like her. You're nothing like your mother."

"Thank you for that. There was a moment when I thought maybe I should just give in, but I can't let Teddy be at their mercy." She took another sip as though she needed something to do. "I count on you."

"I count on you, too."

A new record fell to the turntable.

 _The long and winding road_  
 _That leads to your door_  
 _Will never disappear_  
 _I've seen that road before_

"I've heard this one," he said.

"I'm in a late Beatles sort of mood," she answered. She snuggled up to his side, and he automatically put his arm around her. "Is it ok if we sit like this for a while?"

He Summoned an ottoman and put his feet up. "There's nothing I'd like better."

* * *

He'd been back at work for a week when Podmore brought a couple of new recruits through the office. It was pretty amazing that there was anyone available to bring into the Ministry, much less to work in a non-glamorous area like Magical Creatures, but here they were. There was a girl with hair the way the Gray Man's daughter-in-law used to wear it although in a color more usually associated with human hair, and a young man who didn't look as though he'd ever hold his own against a grindylow. Lyall nodded and shook hands all around before going back to his desk. He was still working through a pile of folders left over from the holidays, fitting them in along with the new cases he had.

He was going through what he'd determined would be his last folder of the day when he heard Podmore bring the new employees back through. "And that's what the place looks like. Tomorrow they'll go through your paperwork with you and then we'll find you a desk. You can go out in the field with other members of our team the day after."

The girl spoke. Alicia? Felicia? "What's with the man in the middle cubicle? I'd go out with him."

"The Gray Man?"

"More of a silver fox, don't you think?"

This was getting personal, and Lyall was trapped. Should he make himself known?

Podmore was talking. "... definitely one of our best. I'll ask."

 _Celestia_. Her name was Celestia. She said something in an undertone. Podmore laughed. "I suppose you can try, but I don't think you'll get too far. He's pretty well spoken for. He's living with his son's grandmother on the other side. They were both widowed, and their children both died in the final battle. She's quite a looker, herself. Everyone says they're joined at the hip. What? Oh, yes, he's definitely sleeping with her. Did you ever meet Healer Black? Yes, she's the one. Many of us have been so see her as kids...

The voices went away and it was as if the entire world had tilted just a bit. The colors and the shapes were still the same, but in changed positions so that they _looked_ completely different. Lyall suddenly had a choice. It wasn't the choice of a few minutes ago, to make them realize he was there or not. It was a choice that came from the realization of too many things to process at once. He looked at the folder again. It was almost done but his mind was gone. He grabbed his outer robe and went home.

* * *

He actually saw himself as he walked past the hallway mirror. He _wasn't_ gray any more. His hair had darkened considerably somehow, more pepper than salt, even. The lines on his face were less noticeable, and his clothes-well those were easily explained by the fact that he wasn't in charge of his laundry any more.

 _Nights in white satin_  
 _Never reaching the end_  
 _Letters I've written,_  
 _Never meaning to send_

Andromeda was sitting at her own desk, reading a journal. She was much more herself, but still had a few days of leave to make sure she was cured of her injury and that the various potions she'd taken were not affecting her. He knocked on the door frame as he came through it, so as not to startle her. She looked up. "Hello there."

Did her face always look so bright when he entered the room? Did he always smile so widely himself? Did he always have this desire to walk up to her and hold her in his arms when they were in the same room? Was he doomed to question everything about his life now? "Good evening." He motioned to the record player. "Who is it today?"

She smiled sadly. "It's the Moody Blues, and today was Severus Snape's birthday."

"I thought everyone in wizarding Britain hated him."

"He fought for some small something to call his own his whole life."

"You knew him, then?"

"He was Sirius' year, so we overlapped a little. I helped him out here and there, although I never paid much attention. I left that to Sirius, who treated him horribly and was treated by him horribly."

"He merits a moment of morning?"

Andromeda blushed. "I was engaged to him... in a manner of speaking."

" _Really?_ "

"They knew Ted had left me, so they brought Severus where I was working in the hospital one afternoon and told us we were expected to marry. A mudblood-lover couldn't expect anything better than a half-caste they told me. Apparently they had told him that he could rehabilitate me and his mother's Prince bloodline. He played it off, telling them he couldn't marry me while my husband might still be out there. Later he told them I needed a chance to mourn. He was really quite gentlemanly about it. Then we learned about his friendship with Lily Potter... well." She looked intently at Lyall. "Did you ever cheat on your wife?"

"WHAT?"

She put up her hand, as though trying to wave the question away. "That was very impertinent of me. I apologize. Please forget it." She stood up and walked over to the drink cabinet. "What is tonight?"

Lyall followed her and sat down heavily on the love seat. "Just water for me." His head was muddled enough this evening. He sighed, and gave words to the only thoughts that he knew for sure. "Nearly. Once." She handed him a glass with her eyebrow raised. "She was lovely, and a witch. We'd been getting closer and closer for weeks at work, and there had been friction at home. It's hard for an absolute Muggle to be married to someone magical, you know? Anyhow, the witch from work and I had dinner after a case that had run on all afternoon, and she suggested going to a hotel nearby, and I got as far as the door of that place, and I suddenly knew I just couldn't."

Andromeda brought her own glass, more sparkling water, and sat next to him sideways so she could face him, with her feet tucked under her. "So your love conquered all."

He felt a little irritated at his story; it hadn't actually been like that at all. It had been neither as noble nor as sordid, just a near miss. He Summoned a coaster to put his glass down on the coffee table. He looked at her. "Fair is fair."

She smiled. "Absolutely right. I honestly don't know if Ted ever did. I'm sure he had hundreds of opportunities. He was so damned likable. Even at Hogwarts, I rarely noticed him until we were revising for NEWTs, but there was always a couple of girls walking by him when I did notice. When we were together, he always came home, every night, except for the day he left and never game home again." She sighed. "My crimes against my marriage were different. I used to wish, from time to time, that I could still be loved by my family, which meant wishing I wasn't married to Ted or wishing that he had some form of magical heritage after all, but not in any real way. The closest I came was the night they sent Severus to tell me they'd killed my husband. I think I lost my mind. At any rate the next thing I knew he was putting me in my bed. I reached up and kissed him, and he kissed me back for a moment, but he knew better. He told me I needed time and he would do what he could to get it for both of us. Had the war ended differently and the Dark Lord forced the issue, I think we might have made the best of it. And that is why I suppose he deserves a few minutes of my time on a dull winter evening."

They sat for a moment. Some other song from the same era started to play. Lyall didn't know what he was thinking any more, but for some reason couldn't keep himself from speaking. "Did you know people are talking about us?"

"People are always talking. What are they saying this time?"

"They're saying that we're..." The word was hard to say, so he found something different... "involved." He could tell she didn't quite get his meaning, so he had to be more specific. "They're saying that we share a bed."

She laughed. "People will say anything, especially if a person has changed as much as you have in the past year. You've always been distinguished, and now you've become quite fanciable, you know." Did she sound a little wistful when she said it?

Lyall looked at his glass, not entirely sure what he was going to say until the words left his mouth. "I think we should get married." He realized he meant it, and looked Andromeda in the eye to emphasize his statement.

She suddenly stood up and looked at him. "Are you asking me to? You are. That has to be the most passionless proposal I've ever received, and mind you I was engaged to Lucius Malfoy."

Lyall stood up too, a little irked. "You've had so many, then."

"A fair few... five just this Hogmany."

He gulped. It hadn't occurred to him that she was so sought after, but perhaps it should have. "Well, then?"

" _That's_ your ask?" She looked at him in disbelief. Her hands formed little fists and pulled up to her shoulders. There was a rattle in the house that made the glassware clink and the record skip. Lyall felt it tremble through the ground and echo against the distant hills. "No." Her voice was cold and terrible, the voice of a force of nature, perhaps even a goddess. "It's a-it's no, Mr. Lupin." Standing there, full of rage and dark magic, she'd never looked Blacker to him. She hadn't morphed in the slightest, but she looked more like Bellatrix Lestrange than on New Year's Eve. Lifting her chin, she walked out of the room.


	17. Nothing Rhymes with Orange

_Disclaimer: The characters here and the world they inhabit are the creation and property of JK Rowling and her assigns._

Lyall and Andromeda met two days later with solicitors at Gringotts. They were finalizing their estates, which were kept separate but with coordination between the two since they had a common heir and needed arrangements for his custody until he came of age. There would be no stairwell cupboards in Muggle households for Edward Remus Lupin. This morning's great surprise was a bank book that one of the goblins brought to Lyall. The balance was thousands of galleons. "Is this mine?" he asked.

"This is the account you set up for one Remus John Lupin. You had some of your account transferred on a monthly basis. Since your name was on it, we could return it to you, or it could be directed to his heir, or split between you."

Lyall looked at the sum in surprise. "Did he never withdraw from it?"

"He would take out the odd bag of knuts and a galleon or two from time to time, but very rarely, as you will see from looking through the transaction statements. Twice he took out more substantial withdrawls."

Lyall looked. Once was various shops around Diagon Alley in August of 1993. He used about a hundred galleons to purchase books and better clothing. The other was at a jewelry store in the late spring of 1997. "Was 1993 when he taught at Hogwarts?" he mused. "Those appear to be the sorts of purchases. The jewelry I don't understand at all. Two hundred and fifty galleons?"

Andromeda looked like she was about to say something, but the solicitor's assistant came back in with final drafts of some paperwork for them to sign as well as initial drafts for some of the other issues for them to read. The solicitor looked everything over and said that they would need a few more meetings to get everything into perfect order but for now they were in much better shape. The custody arrangements for Edward Lupin would take the longest to process, since it required a signature from a judge rather than simply being filed, but as the closest relatives, their petition for formal custody would no doubt proceed without difficulty.

Not knowing how long the solicitors would keep them, they had both requested the full day off for this appointment and went home soon after leaving the bank. Andromeda went upstairs while Lyall went to the study. A few minutes later, she came back down. She set a small silver-gilt box on his desk.

"What is this?" He opened it up and found a diamond solitaire ring and matching wedding band.

"I would guess about two hundred and fifty galleons."

Lyall looked out the window. "I set that account up because I knew he was having trouble finding and keeping work. He must have only used it when he was absolutely starving besides these two specific times. How did we let so much distance come between us that he would never find a way to come to me? He knew I would help him."

"Maybe that's why."

"He didn't want my help? How awful did he think I was?"

"Griffindors have far more pride than common sense, you know."

Lyall looked over at Andromeda, his lips twitching, but then he sighed. Her explanation was too easy. "I wish it was just that."

"If you want to know what I think, you both made assumptions and they were probably at least partially wrong, but out of love for each other you both chose not to potentially start a row. Instead you drifted apart. Taking your money might have seemed like too much of an imposition."

"I just wish-" There were far too many things he would change if he could. Andromeda was pulling out the paperwork they were supposed to go over, and he got his out as well. "There's a lot to go over on the section having to do with either of us marrying," she said. She looked up and asked quietly, "Has there really been so much talk?"

"I've only heard what's been around the office, and mostly in looks and innuendo. I have to admit I didn't realize what they were saying until I overheard something yesterday."

"And they think I'm a whore of some kind?"

He was shocked. "I have no idea." He shook his head. "No, I don't think so. No one has even hinted such a thing to me."

Her voice got quieter yet. "Do _you_ think I'm a whore?"

"My dear!" He stood up and knelt next to her chair. "Never, and I'll knock over anyone who says such a thing to my face; I'll knock over anyone who even suggests it. That's why I'm offering my name to you."

"Because your _good_ name is better than my _bad_ one?"

Something had gone wrong somewhere, and he was on the wrong foot entirely. "Er, no." He stood back up and inched away.

"What would our marriage be like, Lyall?"

Now he was on better ground. "That's the beauty of it. Nothing has to change."

"So our household would be exactly the way it is today?"

He nodded. "Of course." He sat back down at his desk. "It would be completely normalize the situation between us, and we could just go along doing things right the way we do them now."

"I don't need a husband to protect my reputation or anything like that, Lyall. I don't feel as though whatever people are saying as they elbow each other in the ribs is necessary to defend or refute. You were good enough not to ask for a reason, but I will give you one. We can't get married, Lyall, because you don't see how wrong your reasoning is." She stood up at that point and walked toward the door. Then she stopped and turned back around. "Do you think you can never be happy again without Hope? Is it possible that you feel like it's all right to get married in the way you suggest because it doesn't matter if you're happy? Did it occur to you that it might matter to _me_?"

He didn't have an answer.

* * *

An hour later, Andromeda came down the staircase wearing a black strapless cocktail dress and carrying a clutch and wrap. Her hair was in a sleek updo incorporating a simple tiara, and her pearls were around her neck as usual. Her makeup was more dramatic than he was accustomed to seeing. She walked toward the sitting room, where the fireplace was roaring with a floo call. A moment later, Lyall saw the Minister.

"Greetings!" he boomed. "Lady-that is, _Madam_ Black, you are perfectly elegant and charming." He took her hands and kissed both cheeks. Lyall watched in helpless agony as Andromeda handed her wrap to Kingsley and as he settled it down, he touched those shoulders.

Andromeda caught Lyall's eye. "Harry is bringing Teddy home after dinner; Whispy will have yours ready soon. I'll be back by midnight."

It was after the fire had died back to normal that Lyall remembered she was going to a state dinner at an embassy from some Central European country. Whisper had dinner on the table at the usual time in the usual way, and Lyall had no complaints. He just couldn't stop thinking about the way her shoulders gleamed in the evening light. He'd wondered since New Year's if he could remember Hope's shoulders, but only vaguely, because of course she had them, but they couldn't possibly have been like Andromeda's. Andromeda had well defined shoulders that seemed to beckon to him. _Lyall found that he imagined tracing her shoulders and then her collar bones right to that kissable dent at the base of her slim neck. From there he would have the choice of moving up to her lips or exploring downward. Either option was enticing. The brief glimpse he'd accidentally had on New Year's served to encourage him in that direction, but experience on the few times he'd felt her lips gave him cause to go that way, too..._

Lyall shook himself. He shouldn't think of Andromeda that way. She was a great lady and his grandson's grandmother. He'd had his opportunity at that form of happiness. All through dinner he explained to himself that he couldn't abuse the relationship by treating her in such a way. He couldn't abuse any of the relationships between Andromeda, himself, or their late spouses. And all through dinner his mind wandered to the feel of her in his arms as they danced or the way she had looked coming down the stairs just this evening.

* * *

Harry and Ron brought Teddy home and helped Lyall get him to bed. Afterward they sat in the sitting room. Whispy made some concoction on cold nights that warmed a person right through their bones, and all three wizards had more than one mug while exchanging jovial conversation about Auror training and how the others were doing at Hogwarts this term. Several minutes into the second mug, Harry put his down and stared at Lyall as if the elder wizard was suspected of dark magic. "Do we have a problem?" asked Harry with a stern interrogator's voice.

Lyall didn't pretend that he was surprised by Harry's question. "I don't know what to tell you. I asked her to marry me."

"That would be awesome!" "You two belong together." Ron and Harry spoke at the same time.

Lyall shook his head. "She turned me down flat. Somehow I did it wrong." Lyall took a big gulp of his mug. This time he felt the firewhisky in it. "Whatever I did, I'm in big trouble."

"She's not happy, either," said Harry. "I think you need to figure out how to fix it, and soon. You're my family, you know."

"I think she's getting closer to the Minister. Maybe I'm the wrong wizard and I'll need to bow out."

Harry stood up, glaring. "What are you saying?"

"Perhaps I should bow out, step out of the picture."

"You can't do that!" said Harry. He wasn't quite yelling, but it was clear he felt very strongly, and his wand was in his hand. "You can't leave Andromeda and Teddy. You're his family, and he needs you. You can't do what Remus almost did."

 _Like son, like father._ He winced. Of all the ways his son was like him, did he want this to be the one people noticed?

"There's no question that they are my family, Harry. I have no intention of leaving this house. I will be with them, help her care for him, and support them however they need. I'm just not sure in what capacity, and if Andromeda makes other arrangements, I may have to step to the side somewhat." He sighed. "In that case, I may not actually be here in this house, but my care and support will always be available to them."

Harry sat down but leaned forward, his arms braced on his knees, and looked at Lyall. "They're _my_ family too, Lyall. All three of you are. I need all of you together."

Lyall nodded. "I feel much the same way. You can't imagine the life I lived without them. But it may not be my choice, Harry. It may not even be a choice the great Harry Potter can make."

Ron was rubbing the top edge of his mug. "But if you say you think you did it wrong-the proposal, that is-she didn't reject you outright, did she?"

It was a thought.

* * *

Later on he was in the library, trying to see if there was a book that pertained to one of the clauses in the custody petition. Surely someone in a family so extensive had been a solicitor at some point. There must be a volume on family law somewhere in here, even if it dealt with common law from the seventeenth century. He heard the floo crackle to life and checked his watch. Sure enough, it was twenty minutes before midnight. They were laughing as they came through, and then the conversation got a little more serious before they said their goodbyes. Since the rooms were so close, Lyall almost couldn't help overhearing.

How long are you going to make me wait?" asked the Minister.

"Kingsley, it's still too soon."

"You can't wait forever. Eventually you're going to give in."

"I know, but it's so soon. It's only been eight months since the battle, not quite a year since Ted was killed. Just a little longer, Kingsley, please."

Lyall felt as though he was going to be sick. He tilted his head back and tried to breathe.

A few minutes later, having seen her guest out the door, Andromeda breezed into the room. "And how did you pass the evening?"

"Very quietly. Harry and Ron stayed for a little while. They asked about the friction they noticed here in the house in the last day or two."

"Did they?"

"They blame me, of course." They moved into the study and walked over to the drink cabinet.

She laughed at that. "It is a topic you brought up, but maybe..." She shrugged and picked up two glasses. "Do you want anything?"

"Something non-alcoholic. We had some of that grog Whisper makes and I have an early morning." He took the glass she handed him, but before he drank any asked, "What would marriage between us involve if you had been the one who asked?"

She turned bright red. "Hypothetically, since I can't imagine you being faced with such a choice?" She turned away from him to fix her own drink.

"Hypothetically," he agreed.

She sighed and sat on the love seat, kicking off her shoes and pulling her feet under herself. He sat next to her as they always did. "Remember at Christmas when you said you wished we could have more grandchildren but we can't?"

He nodded. "And you pointed out that it's not really that long a wait until Harry and Ron and the rest of them will be bringing their children to visit, children who will be almost as much like grandchildren as Teddy."

"Well," she said a bit slowly, "there could be another option. It still wouldn't be grandchildren."

"I think we've covered that."

She closed her eyes and said, "I could give you children of our own, Lyall. And they wouldn't have the lovely things about them that Teddy has from Ted and Hope, but they would be you and me and delightful in their own perfect and different ways." She drank her glass down to the bottom and put it on the table. "And that's what sort of marriage I imagine."

Lyall was rendered speechless and motionless by the warring thoughts in his mind. It wasn't what he had considered at all, but images flashed through his mind of all the ways he found her body desirable, and he couldn't resolve the conflict. "I-that wasn't-" he finally said.

"I know that wasn't what you had in mind. You've been most clear. But I won't marry you just to keep down talk, Lyall. And neither should you. You should want to marry me because we can't keep our hands off each other."

"But that's not-we're not like that."

"No?" she asked. He looked down into her face. Her head was nestled against his shoulder. His arm was around her shoulders, her very bare, glorious shoulders, and his hand was resting somewhere near her waist.

"This is just-"

Somehow without touching him, Andromeda pulled away and stood up. She picked up their glasses and put them on the tray that Outiss would later move into the kitchen. "I really like the life we share right now, Lyall, but I won't put my name to an empty arrangement like you're recommending. I'd rather keep things as they are."

"Or maybe you're planning a different sort of change?" Lyall felt a bit irritated and couldn't keep it out of his voice. "From context I gather you received another proposal? I assume it ranked rather better than mine, since you said you intend to accept eventually."

Her face got very red. "Not that it's your business, but what Kingsley's constantly after me about, and what I've been trying just as hard to avoid, is being seated on the Wizengamot. He says that much of it is made up of Pureblood families that are trying to score points by being rather harder on the war criminals than the law allows, or even what the law can stand once times change. He thought that I had a particular point of view that might be helpful." She considered the question. "And to be perfectly honest, it did contain more genuine emotion and consideration than what I heard the other night."

"I see," he said with a cowed voice. "I'm-I'm sorry," he said, but it might have been too late. She had left the room.


	18. Opacity

_Disclaimer: The characters here and the world they inhabit are the creation and property of JK Rowling and her assigns._

By tacit consent, neither Lyall nor Andromeda discussed the marriage proposal during the next work week. They left the custody agreement to the side as well. This was good. In many ways they were able to simply go on with life as they always had. Andromeda had stated clearly that she wanted that. Well, that wasn't exactly what she wanted, but it was what she preferred among the options he was willing to accept. Lyall was perfectly happy to continue with the life they'd had since last May, and so there was little for him to complain about.

Little changes had slipped into the situation, however. They had long-since developed habits of touching hands or sitting closely enough together to be touching, and now all of that was gone. It felt cold and lonely to Lyall, who didn't realize how much he'd come to like it. What Andromeda felt about this change she did not say. Somehow it permeated every aspect of their life together. Lyall found that even handing her the breakfast he'd fixed was different now. He placed it on the table rather than setting it in her hands and feeling the small glow that her fingertips passed to him.

On Friday night they were seated in different chairs in the study, awkwardly sipping their whisky, not Ogden's this time but some other excellent brew from Alphard's cellar. They were touching on basic issues they would need to discuss in depth for the custody agreement, knowing that when they finally discussed those issues, they would find some major disagreements. He'd read the part about separating the household if one or the other got married, and he knew such an event would not be amicable.

They did chat amicably about work issues. He was being consulted about a spirit that wouldn't leave a castle, since spiritous apparitions were his specialty. He was a little surprised that his opinion was still sought after, but Andromeda tilted her head and smiled and said it didn't surprise her in the least. Lyall had given some advice that turned out to have worked in this case, making her smile more at his success. Andromeda was overhauling the pediatric department at St. Mungo's, because Hogwarts-aged children needed a different approach than children who were younger, and children under the age of five needed a different approach yet. It was coming along, but money was starting to be an issue, which brought her into the Minister's attention and one of the issues that she would eventually have to capitulate upon.

"He wants you in the Wizengamot and is holding money for the hospital hostage in the meanwhile?" Lyall didn't approve but knew it was the sort of thing politicians did.

"He says I have a particular point of view that could be helpful."

"You have lived in both spheres of influence. You have had family with both points of view."

"I suppose so. The problem is that many of the people being tried now were once patients of mine. How do I dispense justice when I recall them as young and helpless?"

"Perhaps the Minister wants you to offer the voice of mercy."

"I'm not sure, having lost so much, that I'm willing to be that. I just don't know if I can be objective enough. Plus as their former physician, I have obligations to their privacy."

"It might give you a sense of justice to see the trials."

"Nymphadora was killed by Bellatrix, who was in turn killed by Molly, and Remus was killed by Dolohov, who was taken care of by Filius Flitwick. Ron and Neville dealt with Greyback. Those deaths and injuries are avenged, whether in a good way or a bad way."

"What about Ted?"

"Kinglsey never told me who that was, but I trust he dealt with it himself. He was at that skirmish, I found out later. Ted and Kinglsey fought together to protect several others in a group they'd formed. Ted was wounded, perhaps seriously, and sacrificed himself so that Kingsley could get the others away. In any case, I blame Bellatrix, even though she ranked too highly to be directly involved in the snatcher squads. She made it her life's work to erase my mistake, as she put it, and would have made a point of telling others to look for him."

Neither spoke for a few minutes.

"Do you still miss him? Ted?"

"Not in the same way. I miss the life we had together, and I miss his teasing. But I've somehow learned to incorporate the best ways he touched my life into how I do things now."

Lyall nodded. "I wonder if I'm starting to do that with Hope. I find I'm not seeing the world at all the same, yet I don't think I'm seeing it differently either."

Andromeda reached across the space and held his hand. Lyall almost sighed aloud with the pleasure of her touch and then grasped hers as the lifeline it represented. Another moment passed and that grew awkward, too. To cover it up as he pulled away, Lyall cleared his throat and asked, "This family you propose... how does that reconcile with your memories of your husband?"

She smiled sadly. "If he were here, There wouldn't be the remotest possibility of this conversation. But he's gone, and since he taught me how to live and open my heart and love fully... I have this need to keep doing it. "

"And how did you happen to choose me? "

She got up and kissed his cheek, as though he were her father or her child. "Suppose I let you figure it out for yourself. "

She moved as though she would lead the room, but he managed to take her hand. "In the family you're proposing, how many children did you picture?"

She blushed and poured herself another splash of whiskey. "I've never had a son," she said with a shrug.

"I've never had a daughter," he countered.

"So that makes at least two," she said.

"And possibly more than that?" He had difficulty keeping the shock from his voice.

"Obviously it couldn't go on indefinitely," she said. "I'm not that old, but I'm far from young. Perhaps a third and maybe even a fourth. I'm really not sure beyond the two."

"And what of Ted?"

"The fact that I had him in my life and even learned how to love a man is what makes my suggestion possible." .She stood and put their glasses on the tray for the House-elves.

Lyall stood as well. "What makes you so sure this would work? What if we didn't suit?"

"We've been sharing a living space for over six months. If we didn't suit in most ways, we'd know it by now."

"But adding in that other way... if we don't suit there, it could wreck everything."

"Do you honestly think it would?" She looked up at him with big eyes and bit her lip. She looked down with a blush that was almost maidenly. "I had thought it might be, well, quite good."

He put his hand under her chin and tipped her head up. "I've tried not to think of you that way. It seemed disrespectful. Yet..." Now it was his turn to look away... "I suspect you may be right."

"Then..."

"You've given me a great deal to think about, my dear," he said. " i shall have to consider it carefully." He kissed her forehead as though she was his child. He picked up the tray and took it to the kitchen where Whisky looked at him reproachfully.

"Master Lyall," she said. Lyall needed no more scolding. He set the tray on the counter and let the House-elf continue the task he had clearly infringed upon. It was time to stop avoiding his thoughts.

He'd had a couple of attempts at physical experiences with women since Hope's death. The first had left him feeling emotionally bankrupt the second was no better, he decided that part of life must be over for him. The experiences had been almost as bad as burying his wife had been and he had no desire to repeat that.

Andromeda was a different proposition. He shrank from considering her as a bedroom partner even though a part of him had been doing just that. He could admit to loving her. The witch was the companion of the remainder of his life. He was sure on that point, but he was less sure of the full nature of their relationship. He wished he could be as sure as she was that they would suit in every way. He had no doubts about his own attraction to her, but would she be as satisfied with him as he felt he could be with her? Part of him was annoyed that she was so sure that it would work out. Why did she get to decide such things?

* * *

 _There was witch in his shower. He smiled and decided to join her. She gasped in surprise as his arm reached around her. "You started without me," he said as he took the soap from her hands, He brushed the brown curls from the back of her neck and stopped for a moment. The hair was brown now, and the witch was a little shorter than the Muggle had been. She turned into his hands and he could think of little beyond a need to kiss her throat._

 _"I don't have much time. The baby will be up soon," she whispered even as she pressed herself closer, arching into him._

 _"You have time for this," he murmured as he pressed her against the tile and found her lips with his own._

 _"Lyall... yes..." Her breathy sounds of inducement were all he needed to continue._

Until the crying baby woke him up. It was just before dawn, but he could tell from the sound that Teddy would not go back to sleep on his own. _Thank the Fates for baggy pajamas,_ he thought to himself as he padded across the hall to the baby's room.

Andromeda was there before him, soothing the child who was now in her arms. "Night terrors," she said.

"Do you want me to-" he started to ask.

"He's not really awake. I'll give him a bottle and then he'll go down, I think."

"Why don't both of you come here?" Lyall sat down on the day bed and leaned into the cushions lining the wall, pulling Andromeda down in his embrace. Together they cuddled the child as she fed him. Half an hour later, they put him back down in his crib. He seemed to be content to go back to sleep, so after a long moment of staring at each other awkwardly in night clothes, they went back to their rooms.

 _A/N: Are you still with me? I apologize for the delay in this chapter. I was on vacation and away from my laptop. Now I'm at home waiting for a hurricane to stop by and cut my power, so I better get this out while I have power. Thanks for your support, and feel free to mash the button and tell me what you think._


	19. Clarity

_Disclaimer: The characters here and the world they inhabit are the creation and property of JK Rowling and her assigns._

Not sure if he'd make it back to sleep, Lyall got dressed and walked out to the back of the garden. He stared at the two small graves and the three smaller stones and wondered at them. He tried to process Andromeda's vision of what a marriage between them could be. How could she offer that when she knew all too well that what he was looking at could happen?

He heard her before he saw her. She was chanting an old rite of springtime and walking down some of the garden paths. He remembered his mother doing that when he was young. He remembered someone else, too, but that memory was almost painful. His mother said they asked the old gods to give them good crops for their gardens and fields, but she had treated it the same way that his wife had treated Father Christmas.

As he watched Andromeda stop at various spots it appeared to be almost a dance with her, turning and swirling in the green dress she wore. As she said the words, it occurred to him that she wasn't playacting, and she wasn't asking for help in the sense of expecting something to be just given to her, but merely for the earth to do its part. She would cooperate in giving what she could to her garden and simply asked that the earth and the rains would cooperate with her by helping her plants to grow. He glanced into the small cemetery. Oddly enough, there was a sort of cooperation represented by that, too. She lifted her arms as the first rays of sunlight came over the trees across the pond and he lost his breath at the sight of her silhouetted there, surrounded in a sort of golden glow.

She reached the mud room as he finished taking off his galoshes.

"It's a bit early for this, isn't it?" he asked.

"The s-snow is gone, and we might put the p-p-potatoes and onions in by mi-mid-February if the temperatures continue to be warm."

"The temperatures don't seem particularly warm if you're shivering like that."

"No, I probably should have worn a sweater at least. And my feet are caked in mud and it will get all through the house. I didn't plan well for this at all. I couldn't get back to sleep and decided today was time to wake the garden."

"Allow me," he said. He picked her up and carried her into the kitchen. "Outiss, Mistress needs a basin of warm water for her feet."

A moment later, Andromeda was sitting in a chair with her feet in a water bath. "That feels wonderful." She relaxed a little into the chair and swished her feet around to get the warm water all around them.

The water was quickly full of lukewarm muck, which Lyall vanished as he asked the House-elf for more water. After several rinses, Andromeda declared her feet clean enough, so Lyall, who had been kneeling at her feet, dried them. It was worth noticing that such spouse-like activities had long become common between them and how much he liked the giving and receiving. He put the slippers Outiss brought onto her feet. They were intricately knit with curled and pointed toes with jewels worked into the tops. They looked like they might have been bought in a bazaar along the Silk Road. "Such beautiful work!" he said.

She stretched her legs out and looked at the slippers with a twisted smile. "Bella knitted them for me. She had an intricate spell for knitting that I've never seen copied. Pity that she used it so rarely. And the jewels are fake of course, but Cissy sewed them on, just so. I wonder where the dratted elf found them."

"Mistress is displeased?" asked Outiss with tears in his eyes.

Andromeda quickly slipped out of her chair and knelt before him. "Of course not. I should never said that. My apologies, Outiss."

The elf shifted over to fix breakfast with Whisper as Andromeda exchanged an embarrassed glance with Lyall. "I need to learn not to be so thoughtless."

Dealing with House-elves could be fairly awkward. They seemed to hear everything, and they also knew of all the items belonging to their owners, to judge by the slippers on Andromeda's feet. For all their conveniences, there was diminished privacy. Lyall cleared his throat. "How is Teddy?"

"I should check on him. He needs to get up soon, since he's going to the Burrow for the day."

Lyall stood, thinking he might carry her again, but she pressed her hand to his chest. "Relax. It's still my turn."

He was helping the House-elf set the table for breakfast when she came back with their grandson. "Ampa!" he shouted gleefully. Lyall took him and set him in the high chair as Andromeda got his little bowl.

"He never says 'Gran' except when he's very angry with me," she observed tartly. "We know who his favorite is." She fond look she showered on them told Lyall that she wasn't terribly annoyed about it.

Lyall grasped her hand and gave it a quick squeeze. "By the way he was holding on to you earlier, I think we know which one he turns to when he needs comfort." He took the baby's food and started spooning it into a little mouth. "I know who helps _me_ when I need comfort."

She let out a breathless "Lyall" at the compliment, and he stared up at her. For a moment he couldn't differentiate between the witch standing before him and the witch in his dream. She looked at him as though she knew what was going through his mind. Teddy tried to grab the spoon and broke the spell.

Ron Weasley and Harry Pottery came through the Floo right around the time Teddy started pushing the spoon away.

Noticing the closeness between the two of them, Ron quietly asked Lyall, "Has it been taken care of?"

Lyall made a motion with his hand to quiet him down. "Not yet. We haven't had enough time to talk it through."

"You've got all day today," observed Harry.

"It has to go at its own pace you know," said Lyall in exasperation.

They made Andromeda and Lyall promise to come for dinner to pick Teddy up, and then the three of them were gone. Breakfast was over soon after that, with Lyall and Andromeda lingering over cups of tea after Outiss had cleared everything else away. "I suppose we ought to fight out the last bits of those custody agreements," said Lyall.

"I suppose so." Andromeda stood to wash the cups. Lyall dried them and put them away. She opened her mouth to say something and then half shook her head as she closed it again.

The study was cold. Lyall noticed Andromeda's shiver and put an arm around her. "You're still chilled through, aren't you?" He tugged her over to the love seat and relaxed into it so that he was half lying down while pulling her next to him. The papers can wait a bit while you warm up."

"Hmm," was all she said. She seemed a bit tense at first but then he felt her relax against him.

"I've missed our closeness," he admitted. "I've grown quite accustomed to the fact that your touch somehow helps me feel better."

"Hmm," was all she said again.

All right, then, it seemed that it was up to him to get the conversation going. "My mother used to do the same thing in the garden," he recalled. "It seemed silly when she did it as though she was summoning Father Christmas, but it was perfectly right the way you did it. I felt as though you really were speaking to friends out there."

"The garden _is_ a friend. That garden got us through last year, when we had days of being scared to leave the house."

He nodded. "I was reminded..." He wasn't sure if he could go on. Tears were in his eyes. She lifted her head and looked at him. She slid a hand along the side of his face, and suddenly he felt warm. He could tell her, and somehow it wouldn't hurt as badly when he did. "I had a sister."

"Really?" She moved to sit up, but he needed her. She saw the look in his eyes and slid back down into his arms.

"Lyra. She was five years younger than I was." He could smile at the memory of her golden hair and dimples. "She used to follow my mother through the garden and chant with her. They were so beautiful." He thought for a moment. "It was like watching a garden fairy follow a goddess."

Andromeda smiled in encouragement. "What was she like?"

"She was an enchanting child with blonde hair and a curious nature. Naturally she was Ravenclaw when she went to Hogwarts. When she got older, she got a job at the Department of Mysteries."

"She sounds very clever, and like the perfect sister for you."

"Too perfect, perhaps. Do you remember that werewolf attack in '59?"

"Vaguely," she said with a blush, and he realized she would have been a small child then.

"I forget how young you are," he said quietly. As his life companion, Andromeda had become ageless.

"So she was attacked during that?"

"Killed outright," it came out in a whisper.

She sat up. "So that's why you felt the way you did about werewolves, and why you spoke so forcefully that day that-Oh, Lyall, I'm so sorry about it all." She held his hands tight.

He pulled her back down. "It's just part of an unbroken chain of events that I seem doomed to live over and over. I don't know how to break out of it."

"I think I understand better, then." Her voice was resigned, but then curious. "Is that why you don't want-is it that you don't want to risk more children?"

He sighed. "I suppose it does make me worry, but somehow I trust you more than I trust myself. You are much better at protecting your house from unwanted guests."

"Not all of them," she sighed. "My family can now come and go at will, but _that_ will only extend to blood relatives."

"So what happened to Remus couldn't happen to your children. No one like Greyback could get through your home's protections."

She snuggled. He could feel that she was warmer and more comfortable. Now she asked a question. "I saw you in the back garden. What were you doing there?"

"Paying my respects, I suppose, but also trying to make sense of it. I didn't understand how you could want children again after loosing five like that."

"I only lost three. The other two were taken from me." Her face crumpled. "The other three, actually. Bellatrix killed them _all._ "

He could tell from the way she said it that she hadn't seen it that way before. He hugged her tight and kissed the top of her head. "How can you offer to risk that sort of loss? How can you offer to risk your _own_ health for that?"

"I'm not sure, but I feel as though it's important to keep trying to live."

"But-to have children?"

"I always wished for more." She tilted her face up. "You always wanted more children, I suspect."

He looked toward the window. "We couldn't risk Remus hurting a younger sibling. Actually, Hope had every trust in my ability to keep it from happening, but I didn't trust myself. After all, I didn't prevent it to begin with."

They stayed that way, clinging together in comfort, until Lyall felt his body start to betray him. He remembered the dream of the early morning. Her head was resting on his chest, her hand beside her face, and there was something almost post-coital about their positions. He'd been kissing the top of her head, but it would be so easy to tip her chin so that her lips were right next to his. He had to sit up, gently bringing her to the same position.

"I'm-is something the matter?" she asked.

"You've got me feeling like Myra Wilkins after my first fumble."

"You've had sex with old Aunty My?" She looked at him in a sort of curious horror. The young Myra Wilkins had grown to become the bane of every pure-blood daughter's existence as the head of the cotillion organization.

"She wasn't old then, just a bit older than me, and it was only my first kiss, for that matter. For the other you'd have to look to Evelyn Travers-Evelyn Yaxley later on."

"Well that's ironic."

"How so?"

"Evelyn's son Adrian pushed me into a broom closet when I was fourteen and put his tongue down my throat and his hands up my jumper, trying to become _my_ first, I suppose. Needless to say, I did not consider that my first _anything_ , except perhaps the first time someone tried to assault me."

"What did you do to him?"

She tilted her head. "What do you mean?"

"I mean the Black girls had a reputation about boys who tried where they shouldn't, and I know you when you get angry. You don't suffer fools."

"Nothing, really... Well he walked a little funny until the Christmas holiday."

Lyall laughed at that and stood up. "That's what I love about you.

She looked like a child at Christmas with a shiny wrapped box in front of her. "You love something about me?" she asked as an attempt to unwrap it.

"I do," he said over his shoulder. His urge to kiss her had made a song play in his mind, and he was sure it would be in Alphard's collection. He found it and turned on the record player. "I love a great many things about you, actually." He stood before her and held out his hands. She stood up and moved within his arms. He realized they hadn't danced in weeks. Why hadn't he done this at the start?

"We're so obvious I couldn't see it," he said.

 _"Obvious?"_ she sounded a bit annoyed.

"It's obvious that we work well together."

"Well, that's true."

"And it's obvious that we comfort each other in ways no one else possibly could."

She nodded.

"It should have been obvious that, while or because we were becoming so many things to each other, we were becoming more than friends. It should have been obvious how much I miss you during the day and how delighted we both are to see each other at the end of the day. It should have been obvious that there's something special in the fact that I choose to share not just my joys but also my sorrows with you. It should have been obvious how very much I like holding you in my arms." He twirled her and held her at arm's length so that he could look into her eyes. "It's obvious to me now that you've become all in all to me. I want to spend the rest of my life working with you, dancing with you, sharing all of life's joys together, and..." he pulled her close... "loving you."

"Lyall?" She seemed to be choking a bit.

"For years I've been on the verge of becoming one of those spirits I study, and you've forced me to change that, to become a living, breathing man. You've changed me from someone who was getting through life until he could join his ghosts into someone who wants to live, even if it means suffering loss again."

"You were in there the whole time. I just didn't know if you could care for me."

"I've loved you for months. I just didn't realize how all-encompassing it was."

Her smile lit up her whole face. "And I had wondered if I was doomed to foolishly love you with no hope that you could return it."

He kissed her then, on her lips and all over her face. He discovered, with some delight, that the dent at the base of her neck was as kissable as he had always imagined. Then something nagged at the back of his mind. He hadn't yet resolved it all. He pulled back enough to look into her eyes.

"The only thing I'm not sure about now is whether I should accept your proposal or revise my own."

"Oh, Lyall." She buried her face in his sweater and snuggled against him. The record player was set to repeat and the song started again.

 _Give me a kiss to build a dream on_  
 _And my imagination will thrive upon that kiss._  
 _Sweetheart, I ask no more than this_  
 _A kiss to build a dream on._

* * *

 _A/N: And we're just about done, here. I feel kind of surprised by that, as though I'd thought It would go on much longer when all the while I knew this was where it was headed. Thank you for your kind attention, and feel free to let me know what you think._


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